Once and future Colombian presidential candidate, Ingrid Betancourt, was rescued yesterday after being held hostage for six years by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, also known as FARC.
Betancourt, who was seized on the campaign trail six long years ago, appeared thin but healthy as she strode down the stairs of a military plane and held her mother in a long embrace. She said she still aspires to the presidency.
"God, this is a miracle," Betancourt said. "Such a perfect operation is unprecedented."
Eleven Colombian police and soldiers were also freed in the rescue, the most serious blow ever dealt to the 44-year-old Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, which considered the four hostages their most valuable bargaining chips. The FARC is already reeling from the deaths of key commanders and the loss of much of the territory it once held.
Also rescued with Ms. Betancourt were three American US military contractors, Marc Gonsalves, Thomas Howes and Keith Stansell.
In the years before those plane flew into the World Trade Center towers in lower Manhattan, nobody would have dreamed that waging war against terrorists would ever work. Israel was really the only country to use that approach, forced into it as a matter of survival. Israel has been under intense and bitter criticism for it. When George W. Bush adopted that approach after 9/11 domestic and international criticism mounted against the already politically unpopular America and its president.
Leftists don't like it much when their pretenses to revolution are unmasked. Revolution in FARC terms is murder, kidnapping, and drugs. When Colombian President Alvaro Uribe ordered a cross border raid on FARC rebels hiding in Ecuador. During the raid FARC leader Raul Reyes and 22 other guerrilla fighters were killed. Response was swift.
CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuela and Ecuador warned that a regional diplomatic crisis wouldn't cool down without clear international condemnation of Colombia's government for a deadly cross-border strike leftist rebels hiding inside Ecuador.
On Wednesday, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called the Colombian raid that killed two dozen rebels a "war crime."
Leftists in Washington retaliated in their own way. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrat from California, initiated a change in House rules to avoid a required vote on the Colombia Free Trade Agreement.
In a display of urgency, the White House hastily called several Cabinet secretaries to the press briefing room Wednesday so they could restate the case to reporters.
Rice said there was no more important trade agreement in recent memory. "What will it say if the United States turns its back now on Colombia?" she said.
U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab said the House's maneuvering was "unprecedented and unfair by any definition." Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez called the move "profoundly disappointing."
There was dismay in Colombia among supporters of the agreement. Hernando Gomez, the former chief of negotiations for Colombia's trade ministry and current president of the think tank Council on Private Competition said: "I don't see any reason for further delay. People must remember that traditionally U.S. policy toward Colombia has been bipartisan."
The raid took place in March. Pelosi killed the trade bill in April. Colombians are less leftist than Ms. Pelosi would prefer. In late May they re-elected President Alvaro Uribe with the expectation that he would continue to make good on his promises to fight against the FARC. Alvaro won 62% of the vote, a landslide by any measure.
The Oxford-educated president campaigned on his uncompromising security policy, under which murder rates have fallen by a quarter and kidnappings by two thirds.
Uribe has been unusually successful in his fight against the FARC and the rescue is further evidence. Waging war on terrorists works. Today's Washington Times reports a surprising piece of news. Republican presidential candidate John McCain was informed of the operation ahead of time.
Hours earlier, Republican presidential candidate John McCain had been briefed in advance of the rescue plan during a visit to Colombia.
"It's a very high-risk operation. I congratulate President [Alvaro] Uribe, the military and the nation of Colombia," Mr. McCain said after the hostages were safe.
It may be that McCain was informed only because he happened to be in Colombia. Or maybe he picked this moment to make a trip to Colombia because of an anticipated operation against the FARC. In any case I think it is very fortunate that the Colombian government did not inform the Democratic candidate. Those Democratic staffers seem to have such a propensity for leaking sensitive information.
