The Guardian 23 July, 2008
The truth about Ingrid Betancourt
and the US mercenaries
To be able to understand "Operation Redemption" to free Ingrid Betancourt and the mercenaries of the company Northrop Grumman Corporation who were released together with her, it is necessary to connect the pieces published in the media and their meaning, to filter the content, and from there to form a true understanding of the facts of what happened. They had been held by liberation organisation FARC in Colombia.
1. On June 3, Colombian Senator Piedad Cordoba disclosed that he had information that the government of Colombia was negotiating an agreement with FARC to exchange money for the freedom of Betancourt and the mercenaries. The official politics of the two countries, Colombia and the United States, is that they "do not negotiate with terrorists". As for the real terrorists, several leaders of Latin American countries accuse President Uribe of supporting the death squads of the paramilitaries and accuse the United States of promoting, supporting and guaranteeing the security of known terrorists, such as Orlando Bosch and Luis Posada Carriles.
2. Attentive observers began to question the strange circumstances that surrounded the event of the "dramatic rescue" of Ingrid Betancourt. Some men wearing Che Guevara t-shirts simply had appeared and placed the hostages on board a helicopter. If it was so easy, why had it not been done years ago? The French media also found odd the fact that Betancourt did not have the distressed or hungry appearance in the images that were distributed before when she was still in captivity — she had a healthy appearance and appeared to have been fed well, as she was being prepared to be freed.
3. The capitalist media used the opportunity to edit out parts of the press conference given by Betancourt, keeping only the parts that glorify Uribe and the United States. They cut the sections in which she speaks of Hugo Chávez of Venezuela and Rafael Correa of Ecuador and their important efforts to find a diplomatic and peaceful solution to the crisis.
The full text of the press conference was transmitted by Latin American media, such as Telesur, but only small heavily edited pieces were transmitted by CNN, Fox News and other media of the northern hemisphere. For example, one of the things cut in the edited version were the comments of Betancourt that she felt used by the whole situation and that the operation had put the life of the prisoners at risk while a diplomatic solution, such as the ones carried out by President Chavez, guaranteed the security of the prisoners.
4. The capitalist media, without any shame, immediately started to use the situation to promote their political objectives: in all areas of the corporate media, Uribe was being portrayed as a hero, the days are counted for FARC (to disintegrate) and nothing is mentioned of the peaceful and diplomatic deeds and actions by Chávez that freed several prisoners kept by FARC.
5. Later, information started to come to the surface that in fact, the government of Colombia secretly paid US$20 million to FARC in exchange for the liberation of Betancourt and the North American mercenaries, confirming what Senator Cordoba had said a month ago. This history was published by the French media, MediaPart and by radio Suisse Romande of Switzerland. MediaPart also divulged that France and Colombia would guarantee safe asylum for some members of FARC as part of the agreement.
6. Dominique Moisi, one of the most prominent specialists in French foreign policy, said that it was "possible" that FARC had received money in exchange for the prisoners….
8. The news that US$20 million was paid, quickly circulated in all the corporate media while they fought to try to distort the information. The confusion caused by this bizarre operation makes much more sense when it is seen as an action pre-organised, to exchange prisoners for money. The true face of the Latin American extreme right was again exposed.
9. It is worthwhile to repeat that together with Betancourt, soldiers of the United States were also set free. They were working on private contracts. They had been captured when the aircraft that was doing observation flights came down inside territory controlled by FARC during an operation of the US strategic Plan Colombia.
Northrop Grumman, a company that manufactures aircraft and armaments, received a contract worth US$60 million to provide logistical support for the military operations of the United States and of Colombia in the war regions. Between the years 1990 and 2002, Northrop Grumman contributed US$8.5 million for federal campaigns. Coincidently, at least "seven officials, consultants or shareholders of Northrop Grumman" had posts inside the administration of President Bush.
Plan Colombia has been repeatedly criticised by international human rights organisations, including Amnesty International and the United Nations, for keeping close relations with death squads of the extreme right, providing assistance to illegal terrorist organisations of the extreme right and their direct or indirect participation in slaughters and atrocities. Most of the terrorists of the extreme right in Colombia are former members of the Colombian army who support the operations done under the Plan Colombia.
10. Finally, it must be pointed out that the government of Colombia under Uribe, which has benefited from the generalised reminiscences done by the corporate press in the last days, is routinely condemned as having one of the worst human rights records of any country in the world. More than 60 members of the congressional coalition of President Uribe are under investigation for electoral fraud or collaborating with right-wing groups classified as "terrorist organisations" by the United States.
Colombia is the most dangerous country in the world for trade union organisers, with the highest toll in the whole world of murders and extrajudicial executions of trade unionists.
Since Plan Colombia started, the United States sent about US$4.7 billion for the government of Colombia, described by Senator Cordoba as a "democracy that governs through the use of fear and of terror" to fight the so-called "war on drugs". Senator Cordoba herself was kidnapped by 12 armed terrorists affiliated with the government.
"Also it is used to silence those, who like us, speak publicly against the government," she stated. "They try to silence us through seizures, disappearances and even through killing many of us.
"Unlike many Latin American countries, that have torn down the brutal dictatorships supported by the US that governed the continent during greater part of the 20th century, Colombia is an active remembrance of how life used to be for all of South America — ferocious and repressive dictators that terrified the population with money and weapons supplied by the United States in exchange for support to its politics."
Translated from Portugese and published in Pravda.
Abridged for reasons of space.