BOGOTA (Colombia): A fake humanitarian organisation was created, complete with a special logo and a website. Bogus messages circulated through the jungle on tiny computer drives. Commandos on a helicopter posed as a doctor, a nurse, news reporters and cameramen.
For several weeks, Colombian armed forces constructed a fake universe, and with help from US intelligence and equipment, managed to fool the insurgent Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia into giving up 15 hostages on Wednesday, including former senator and presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt and three US defence contractors.
New information emerged on Thursday that may explain how the rebels were tricked into grouping the hostages in a remote jungle location and putting them on a helicopter that the rebels believed was headed for a special meeting with new FARC commander Alfonso Cano.
Many details remain unknown, but the deception apparently depended on the rebels having a degree of comfort with helicopters and personnel from outside the insurgent group who had entered secret locations without posing any threats. Colombian and US officials say there was no reason for the rebel commander guarding the hostages to disbelieve the “orders” that seemed to come from his superiors.
So daring was the plan hatched by two Colombian colonels that when they brought it to commanders in April, Defence Minister Juan Manuel Santos exclaimed: “Are these people crazy?”
The risks were high: One US official gave it only a 50 per cent chance of success.
Had the operation failed, the US was prepared to participate in a “Plan B” that would have sent 2,000 Colombian troops and US advisers aboard 39 helicopters to within half a mile of the site within 15 minutes.
Colombian military chief of staff Gen Freddy Padilla said on Thursday: “On the morning of the operation, I prayed to the memory of my mother, to whom I have never asked anything, to grant success and for there not to be anyone killed.”
The rescue plan was made possible by Colombian army intelligence agents’ infiltration of the inner circle of both the FARC’s governing secretariat as well as the rebel unit led by Gerardo Aguilar Ramirez, alias “Cesar”, who was in charge of guarding the high value hostages, Padilla said on Thursday.
Although planned and executed by the Colombians, the rescue benefited from equipment, intelligence and years of training from the US government. About 100 full-time employees at the US embassy here have been working on freeing the US hostages since they were taken captive in February 2003, after their drug surveillance plane crash landed in the jungle.
US help included surveillance cameras placed along rivers where the rebels were known to traverse. The US also provided the Colombians satellite imagery and the technology that enabled them to locate rebel locations. The decision to go ahead with the mission went all the way to President Bush, who in recent days gave his personal approval of the mission, a US government source said.
“We have been training, equipping and embedding people in preparation for a rescue operation for 5 1/2 years,” US Ambassador to Colombia William Brownfield said in an interview on Thursday.
At the embassy, a euphoric mood prevailed, and the lobby that had long featured memorial photos of the three hostages now had celebratory activities.
According to recent deserters, the FARC command has become increasingly isolated as their radio, cell and satellite phone communications were compromised by US-provided listening equipment, Padilla said.
“Because of the rebels command and control problems, they have had to resort to medieval communication methods such as human couriers,” Padilla said.
Having undercover agents in place in the FARC command made it possible for bogus messages to arrive to the leadership in pen drives and floppy disks. Those fake messages ultimately fooled Cesar into putting the hostages aboard the helicopter on Wednesday.
Cesar was also duped into aggregating three separate groups of hostages into one and then transporting them in a six-week trip to La Paz, 110 miles northeast of where they were being held near the Apoporis River in southeastern Guaviare state. The rebels apparently thought they and the hostages were being taken by helicopter to a meeting with the FARC commander, who took over the rebel command from founder Pedro Antonio Marin, alias Manuel Marulanda, who died in March.
In charge of the helicopter was a phony organisation called the International Humanitarian Group, whose logo was placed on board the chopper. Colombian and US intelligence officials even created a fake website in case rebel commanders checked.
Betancourt told reporters on Wednesday that she was infuriated at the sight of the chopper and its crew, some of whom were wearing Che Guevara T-shirts, because she thought they were going to be used for some publicity stunt.
She and the other hostages were also upset at being handcuffed, which Padilla said was a precautionary message to keep the hostages from trying in desperation to hijack the helicopter that would prove to be their salvation.
Once airborne at 2,500 feet, the eight Colombian commandos who were posing on board the chopper in various disguises, including news reporter, cameraman, doctor and nurse, overcame and disarmed Cesar and one other FARC commander.
One US official said great care was taken to make the rented Russian-made MI-17 helicopter and its crew resemble the two choppers that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez sent to the same general area in January and February to recover six FARC hostages.
To put the rebels’ minds at ease, two commandos posed as video reporters similar to the Telesur team that Chavez sent to record the releases earlier this year.
Colombia almost launched a rescue operation in February after the three Americans were seen bathing in the Apoporis River. But before an operation could be launched, the hostages and their captors slipped into the jungle. That rescue plan did not involve a ruse like Wednesday’s but a rapid-deployment “humanitarian cordon” that was to have been airlifted to encircle the rebel camp.
A rescue plan moved back to the front burner in May after Colombian intelligence again located the hostages in southeast Guaviare state, thanks to intelligence gleaned from FARC deserters and army officer Jhon Frank Pinchao, a former hostage who escaped the FARC in May 2007.
The two colonels who devised the “bottom up” plan will be decorated, Padilla said. He declined to disclose their identity.
“I never dreamed this could happen,” the general said, “which is not to say I didn’t want it to.”—Dawn/ The LAT-WP News Service (c) Los Angeles Times
Dear visitor, the comments section is undergoing an overhaul and will return soon.