Friday, November 30, 2007

Video of the Day: Evidence of hostages’ survival

Earlier today, the Colombian government released videos of sixteen kidnap victims held hostage by the FARC guerilla army. Amongst some of the high-profile captives shown on the tapes included politician Ingrid Betancourt and three U.S. contractors. The hostages appear to be thin and frail on the videos which where supposedly obtained during a military operation.

The following YouTube video was taken via a newscast from Colombian TV:

Relatives of those kidnapped expressed relief of seeing their loved ones for the first time in years but were also sad and distraught over their condition.

Colombian senator Piedad Cordoba- who helped negotiate with the FARC along with Hugo Chavez- told the local press that more video evidence will be coming soon, while Chavez was alleged to receive the tapes by this weekend had he not been removed as mediator last week.

Sources (English)- Reuters, CNN, BBC News, The Latin Americanist, YouTube

Sources (Spanish)- RCN, El Tiempo, Caracol Radio

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5 comments:

  1. Anonymous5:53 PM

    pi

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  2. Unknown5:55 PM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  3. Anonymous5:56 PM

    I am Colombian, I live in Colombia, and I want foreigners to understand that we don like the "FARC" terrorist group, because they are killers, and they just want to control the country, just for run their narcotrafic business without any limit. Freedom! for Ingrid Betacourt, but the goal does not justify the way.

    Je suis colombien, J´habite en la Colombie, et je veux que les étrangers compreniez que nous n'aimons pas las FARC, parce que ils sont Tueurs, ils seulement veulent controler le pays, pour faire leurs activites narcotrafiques, sans limite. Liberté pour Ingrid, mais le but ne justifie pas les moyens.

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  4. Erwin C.10:27 PM

    Thanks for your comment.

    It is very rare to find any Colombian completely in favor of the FARC. The problem becomes how to handle them. In that sense, you can probably get a dozen answers from a dozen Colombians and they could still be incorrect.

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  5. Anonymous7:08 PM

    Farc are TERRORISTS and not rebels. "Rebel Group" is a misleading euphemism. Newspapers and media should be fair to the innocent victims of FARC. The term "rebel" glorifies FARC actions and make the victims only figures of history.
    FARC ARE TERRORISTS
    FARC ARE TERRORISTS
    FARC ARE TERRORISTS

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