eyes, all of a sudden, on kidnapping in Colombia

photo: El Tiempo -- (left to right) Luis Eladio Pérez, Jorge Eduardo Géchem, Gloria Polanco and Orlando Beltrán.

With the news today of the release of four former Colombian lawmakers after more than six years in captivity, came a statement from the FARC declaring an end to "unilateral liberations," until demands for a New-York-City-sized distension zone is conceded to the rebels. Good news for the four pictured above. Bad news for the 500 still left, including former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, and three Americans.

While the wires relay developments (all 627 related » at the moment over on Google News), only one article so far puts some of these developments in context, and I recommend taking a look at Kevin Whitelaw's review of the "War on Kidnapping" in U.S. News & World Report, and then follow on to a previous article on the power of both kidnapping imagery and the FARC.

Anyone who sees recent releases as purely positive steps, should reconsider the scope of the conflict. Whitelaw writes:

Places to hide. Kidnapping remains a problem. A number of hostages—U.S. intelligence agencies estimate some 750—remain in captivity. Many are middle-class Colombians, but there are also several dozen high-profile captives, like Ingrid Betancourt, a French-Colombian woman and former Colombian presidential candidate. The guerrillas can still find places to hide in Colombia's jungle, which is almost the size of France. "That's the part of the territory the bad guys still know more about than us," says Colombia's Vice President Francisco Santos. "They have been there for 45 years, and we have been there systematically only for five."

Remember that kidnapping peaked back in 2000 at an astonishing rate of over 3500 a year. Such was the bonanza that armed groups took to calling road blocks and other random kidnapping techniques "pesca milgarosa" or miraculous fishing.

Here's what it looks like to come out of the jungle after 6 years. That's left-wing senator Piedad Cordoba in yellow -- she's been shuttling back and forth to Chavez to help negotiate the release.



Finally, who's still out there? Another excellent post from Adam Isacson, at the Center for International Policy, provides a full update.

More on the aftermath of kidnapping

Photo: Luis Perez, flickr -- stationary bike in Chocó

El Tiempo today paints an odd portrait of the Pacific coastal town of Nuqui, Chocó, where, the article leads, 7 people have recently lost their jobs.

They lost their jobs in this remote beach front, accessible only by air and sea, because last month 6 Colombian tourists were taken hostage by the FARC. Nuqui, and the national parks nearby, are a destination for viewing humpback whales at their northernmost migration, and local officials claim that 450 tourists had visited in the two weeks prior to the kidnapping.

Since then, of course, hotel owners have had nothing but cancellations, especially from foreigners. How long does it take for tourist sites to recover from publicized aggression? It had been six years since anything warlike had happened in this sleepy town, said one local. "People die of old age here, life is so relaxed" said the town doctor. "I haven't had my first heart attack."

Last week, the article says, a pair of foreigners arrived. They are being escorted by local military, and the Colombian Tourism Ministry is pushing its all-clear signal as best it can. (The reporting credit includes: "by invitation of the presidency and the authorities of Nuqui.")

One of the recently unemployed is quoted:

"Yo recibía a los turistas en el aeropuerto, compraba el pescado para la comida, arreglaba la planta y bombeaba el agua para las cabañas. Estaba encarretado con la parte turística y feliz porque conocía a mucha gente", dice Moreno, de 29 años

"I received the tourists at the airport, bought fish for dinner, checked the power plant and pumped water for the cabins. I was into the touristic part and happy to meet a lot of people," Moreno, 29, said.

So, following on the Weigel case: can the six tourists be billed for Moreno's lost salary?