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Jose Miguel Gomez / Reuters
Soldiers and police officials held hostage by the FARC rebels arrive at Villavicencio's airport after being freed Monday.
Colombia's FARC rebels freed 10 members of the armed forces held hostage in jungle prison camps for more than a decade on Monday, the last of a group the drug-funded group had used as bargaining chips to pressure the government.
The four soldiers and six policemen were released to a humanitarian mission led by the International Committee of the Red Cross in what the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia called a gesture of peace.
Wearing olive fatigues and seeming well fed and relatively healthy, the 10 men stepped off a helicopter provided by Brazil after the Marxist rebels freed them in a remote area of southern Colombia.
Following their successful recovery from the jungle, the hostages were taken to the city of Villavicencio, received by medics of the security forces and some immediately reunited with family members in the VIP lounge of the small airport, according to a report on local English language news website Colombia Reports.
It said the release marked a “milestone” in the Colombia conflict.
Smiling and joking with a medic, one soldier left the aircraft draped in the Colombian flag and skipping with joy. Each carried a plastic bag of belongings and one was accompanied by what appeared to be a small pig that had been his pet in the jungle. Another had what looked like a monkey on his shoulder.
"To these victims of the intolerance and cruelty of the guerrillas, soldiers and policemen of Colombia, welcome to freedom," President Juan Manuel Santos said from the presidential palace. "Freedom has been long delayed, but now it's yours."
The release could signal that the FARC is taking tentative steps toward a bid for talks that may end Latin America's oldest insurgency after five decades of killing and destroying economic infrastructure.
But many Colombians remain skeptical that the guerrilla group, which is still believed to be holding as many as 700 civilian hostages for ransom, will lay down its weapons after having used previous peace talks to strengthen their forces.
The logistics of feeding and moving hostages has become more difficult for the FARC as an increasingly effective U.S.-backed military offensive has killed its leaders and driven the guerrillas back into ever more remote regions.
As a result, the police say, cases of kidnapping for ransom have fallen 90 percent since 2000 to 208 incidents last year, while the number of extortion cases surged 33 percent in 2011 from the previous year.
Reuters and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.
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Glad they are reasonably unscathed, hopefully there was minimal mental trauma as well. Definitely takes brave men to work in the jungles of Columbia.
The problem is that the reaction from the government of Colombia was far from helpful. Instead of acknowledging this as a positive step towards reconciliation, they stated that this was not enough to warrant any new talks with FARC. These comments did little to improve the chances of release of any of the hundreds of civilian hostages they still hold. Maybe if the government would have taken a more positive outlook towards this gesture, real progress could have been made towards ending this decades long conflict. The government of Colombia is far from a model of freedom or tolerance and their refusal to acknowledge this gesture as a positive thing was an extremely stupid and ignorant thing to do. Instead of moving things forward, they have probably hurt any chances at ending the conflict by basically throwing this positive gesture back in FARCs face.
Don't trust the FARC. They lie like Obama. The only thing the FARC should be rewarded with is death. When they are all dead, then and only then, should Colombia "think" about negotiations. jejejeje
hey mark, at least obama doesn't lie as much as rick perry
OUCH!! He got ya on that one Mark..
America's Navy SEALS could cure this hostage problem, before Breakfast.
Yeah, they'd kill people and make the US proud right?!
You're eaten corn..
SEALS .... "When it absolutely, positively has to be destroyed overnight."
Many of the FARC guerillas operate along the border with Venezuela...
While I'd personally love to see the look on Hugo Chavez's face when he hears that American commandos are conducting raids along the border, that would not be good for regional peace and stability.
OMG!....is Colombia maturing??
No. FARC decided they were tired of feeding them.
No, I wouldn't call the FARC leadership "maturing" unless you consider dying and decomposing as "maturing." The FARC has been decimated by the Colombian government and "other" operators in the area. They want to wave the white flag before the rest of them are dead...and...."maturing."
Kind of brings back memories of the Iran hostages coming home.
As to FARC actually changing its spots...I kind of doubt it. Unless they have something in it for them, these groups don't just give up that easily. More likely than not they are changing tactics and hoping to buy time. It's happened before (the Basques' ETA being one example). But at least for those set free, part of their ordeal is over...now they can rebuild their lives.
A sad situation with sad solutions. Central America is still in the tank! The last thing they need is USA involvement.. Let them settle it themselves please.
USA is already involved and has been for years. They have dozens of US military advisers (and DEA) in country assisting the CM in their fight against FARC.
Actually, Colombia is in South America and not Central America. The politics and economies are completely different in both parts of the world.
According to the article, it seems the government has made some good progress in the region with our help, so I guess US involvement turned out just fine in this case.
Something seems weird about this whole thing they seem way to happy it was as though they weren't in prison they just wanted to come home.
I don't know but something seems off.
"But many Colombians remain skeptical that the guerrilla group, which is still believed to be holding as many as 700 civilian hostages for ransom, will lay down its weapons after having used previous peace talks to strengthen their forces."
'Nuff said, I think. Looks like a PR gesture to me.
More than 700 still being held.
They only let the soldiers go to decrease the government's pressure on them (FARC).
Betancourt's book about her captivity was chilling. These rebels are druglords and misogynists !!! Nothing more.
And what was FARC's epiphany? Did they run out of toilet paper? There are enough bad asses in FARC that if the head honcho had a "back to Jesus" episode, that his underling would probably take him out to keep the revolution going. They don't do something like this without a damn good reason and their track record is one of talking peace and then coming back harder and worse than ever. I agree with the Columbian govt - FARC cannot be trusted.
For a real understanding of the FARC and their motives and treatment of prisoners being held, you should read "Out Of Captivity" by Marc Gonsalves and others. They were working for an American contracting agency when their plane went down in the jungle and they were taken prisoner by the FARC. The book recounts their ordeal as prisoners, how they were treated, the death of some of their fellow prisoners and their subsequent release more than 5 years later. It's a harrowing story, but a true account and will give you some realistic insight into the FARC operation.
FARC is a relic of the past. As Colombia has entered the modern, civilized world FARC comes across more as a cult than some sort of peoples liberation guerilla force. I just hope Colombia can wrap this thing up before the US military and financial aids starts to dry up.