Colombia: Outrage after failed FARC hostage release · Global Voices
Julián Ortega Martínez

On December 8, 2010, in an open letter to former senator Piedad Córdoba, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) announced they would release five hostages: local politicians Marcos Baquero and Armando Acuña, from San José del Guaviare and Garzón, respectively; marine infant Henry López; national police official Guillermo Javier Solórzano; and army corporal Salín Sanmiguel.
After obtaining permission from the national government, and the participation of Brazil as mediator and logistics provider, the hostage releases, assisted by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), were taking place without any difficulty: on Wednesday February 9, Baquero was released (even bringing a cat [es] from the jungle, who was his only companion [es] during his captivity); and on Friday, February 11, councillor Acuña and infant López met again with their families. On Saturday it was announced that another hostage would be released on Sunday, police officer Carlos Ocampo, kidnapped late December 2010 in San Antonio, Tolima.
However, things did not go as planned on Sunday. Initially, bad weather was blamed as the cause for the delay of the operation. Ocampo was freed after being picked up from an unknown location and taken to the Ibagué airport (central-western Colombia), and later to Bogotá where he was reunited with his relatives. But Solórzano and Sanmiguel were not present at the coordinates provided by FARC to former senator Córdoba. Eduardo Pizarro Leongómez, who was appointed by the Santos administration as delegate for the releases, told the media that the FARC had given the wrong coordinates and that the kidnapped were not in Tolima but in Cauca (southwestern Colombia).
Many Colombian Twitter users expressed their outrage:
María Isabel Ángel (@MaisAngel) (1, 2):
Con el envío de falsas coordenadas, las FARC demuestran que no había ningún acto humanitario en entrega de secuestrados. Quién sabe que hay detrás de eso, la interrupción de operativos militares para liberaciones les conviene de algún modo.
José L. Peñarredonda (@noalsilencio) (1, 2, 3, 4):
La pregunta complicada que hay que responder es si @Piedadcordoba actuó o no de mala fe. A la larga, a @PiedadCordoba le convenía más que todo saliera bien. ¿Pero si los uribestias tienen razón después de todo? Si las Farc usaron a @PiedadCordoba para ganar ventaja estratégica, eso cambia muchas cosas[, p]ero si @PiedadCordoba usó al Gobierno para darle ventaja estratégica a las Farc, pues lastimosamente los uribestias tenían razón
Camilo Andés (@n0ta_mental):
y para mi que @piedadcordoba y su grupito armado Farc, están transportando droga del Tolima al Valle usando las liberaciones como excusa!!
@Vulturno:
estos hijueputas de las FARC se parecen cada vez más a esos generales que sacan el resultado a punta de caguémosla y despues nos disculpamos
@ensergio:
Las Farc son unos desgraciados y buscan show. Pero si mañana se puede de nuevo coger el helicóptero pa liberar a la gente, ¿no vale la pena?
Victor Solano (@solano):
Lo de hoy con las falsas coordenadas recuerdan otros episodios de mentiras enormes de las farc como el caso de Emmanuel, hijo de Clara
Since FARC top leader Guillermo Sáenz, aka Alfonso Cano, is long believed to be hiding at Las Hermosas National Park [es] (which is close to the area where the hostage release operation took place), with the Colombian Army actively pursuing him, some Twitter users claim the false coordinates were a strategy:
Diana (@DianaPala):
Los defensores d Colombianos x las Farc serán tan ignorantes q se tragan cuento d “error” en las coordenadas? Las dieron falsas! Entiendan!
Juan Gutiérrez (@JuPaGuCa):
Sabe usted cuando vamos a saber de Alfonso Cano. Cuando alguno se lo encuentre en Isla Margarita. Y sin duda ya va a mitad de camino.
Daniel Arango (@stultaviro), with irony, writes:
Felicitaciones a @PiedadCordoba. El operativo de liberación del comandante Alfonso Cano fue todo un éxito.
Still, some questioned the government's version, like Laura Gil (@lauraggils) (1, 2):
No entiendo cómo se pasa juicio a favor FARC o Gob ref: liberaciones. Nadie sabe exactamente qué pasó. ¿No deberíamos tener cosas + claras? / Pregunta para los q tienen todo claro sobre incidente liberaciones: como sabe el Gob q los dos secuestrados estan en Cauca?
On Sunday night, Pizarro announced [es] that early on Monday February 14, the ICRC would propose an area in Cauca for the hostage releases to be finally completed, but that military operations will resume in Tolima at 06:00 (11:00 UTC) on Monday, as previously agreed.