FARC leader on the run
Posted by Jonn Lilyea on April 5, 2008
Rodrigo Granda
Interpol has placed a FARC leader on their equivalence to a “most wanted list” for a four-year-old kidnapping and murder in Paraguay (Miami Herald link);
Cecilia Cubas, the 31-year-old daughter of former Paraguayan President Raul Cubas, was kidnapped Sept. 21, 2004, in a sensational abduction that rocked this South American country. She had been dead more than a month when her body was found stuffed down a well at a house on the outskirts of the capital, Asuncion, in February 2005.
At the time, Paraguayan investigators said that they had uncovered e-mail exchanges between [FARC Leader Rodrigo] Granda and Paraguayan leftist Osmar Martinez in which they allegedly discussed the kidnapping. Martinez was a leader of Patria Libre, or “Free Fatherland,” a small leftist group with alleged ties to the FARC.
Of course, Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez says he can’t help get Astrid Betancourt released until they call off their hunt for Granda (Miami Herald link);
France asked the Venezuelan president for help Friday with a hurried mission to free an ailing hostage held by Colombian rebels, but Hugo Chavez said he can’t do anything unless Colombia and the U.S. back off their hunt for a guerrilla leader.
So, Chavez, as per usual, is placing politics above the well-being of Astrid Betancourt. I guess he can blame the whole world as well as Colombia if she dies. Daniel, of Venezuela News and Views describes Ms. Betancourt’s condition;
The situation this week reached epic proportions. Ingrid has been reported visiting small health centers escorted by her captors as these ones cannot keep her alive on their own. So they just come out of the jungle in some forsaken outpost hoping, literally, for a miracle. That this establishes that releasing hostages is a much easier operation than other orchestrated ones we have seen early this year does not escape the mind of acute observers. No wonder that Uribe does not want Chavez in this whole affair anymore, media shows do not bring anything. Not to mention that publicly he keeps insulting Uribe on an almost daily basis.
Even the French had taken a more discrete approach, at least until this week when a desperate Sarkozy, sensing the imminent death of Ingrid has decided to play its full hand and dispatched an airplane fully equipped with medical supplies to rescue Ingrid. Currently that airplane is sitting on some Colombian tarmac while the FARC have declared that unless Uribe gives them some land and releases all of the FARC prisoners, they will not release Ingrid.
Meanwhile, Colombians are getting fed up at being held hostage in their own country by the bloodthirsty FARC thugs (Miami Herald link);
Colombians marched through the streets of Bogotá on Friday demanding the release of hundreds of hostages held by leftist rebels, as a humanitarian mission to give medical aid to the country’s most high-level hostage floundered.Waving white handkerchiefs and chanting, ”They were taken alive and we want them back alive,”
It’s getting to the point where something has to give. But, whatever happens, Uribe should make sure that Chavez stays out of it.
