Did U.S. Pay FARC $20 Million Ransom to Release Colombian Hostages?
It appears that John McCain didn’t go storming bare chested into a Colombian militant camp earlier this week and single-handedly free the hostages being held. Their release was a simple cash transaction, apparently formulated by the Bush administration.
Paying a ransom for release of hostages is a concept that’s been around for a long time. When it was breathlessly announced in the media a couple of days ago that 15 hostages long held by a Colombian militant group had been freed by the Colombian military the day after John McCain visited, many people were curious about the timing of the release.
Apparently, the hostages were freed without a shot being fired in a coordinated raid. There’s never been any news on whether militants were captured during the raid - and it’s doubtful that any were detained - because they left the hostages right where the military knew to find them.
Was it an intelligence coup of some sort, aided by the Bush administration? It’s not looking that way. In fact, it’s looking like a standard payoff to kidnappers; a $20 million ransom.
Leaders of the Colombian FARC rebel movement were paid millions of dollars to free Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt and 14 other hostages, Swiss radio said on Friday, quoting ‘a reliable source’.
The 15 hostages released on Wednesday by the Colombian army ‘were in reality ransomed for a high price, and the whole operation afterwards was a set-up,’ the radio’s French-language channel said.
Saying the United States, which had three of its citizens among those freed, was behind the deal, it put the price of the ransom at some $20 million…
Seems cheap to me, for 15 hostages. But maybe FARC didn’t think it was going to do any better, and needed some cash.
Again, it’s not the release of the hostages which is bothersome. That’s a good thing. $20 million was a small price to pay to secure their release. It’s the timing of the events and the accounts of the release that have been suspect.
Maybe, if that’s how much the promise of a free trade agreement costs.
Perhaps you cannot put a price on 15 lives, but the precedent of negotiating with terrorists may cost more human life in the long run. I hope that this report is false, else we may have set the stage for further kidnappings. “We will pay 1.33 million per hostage” is an unacceptable policy to establish.
Imagine if a Democrat had paid TERRORISTS with $15 million in taxpayer funds…….
Before hearing of the rumour of the 20mill pay off; one only had to look how Ingrid Betancourt looked so refreshed, even rested and very healthy when she came off the helicopter. That seemed strange to me at the time. Then when I heard of the rumour, involving the Swiss (long thought to be dependable and trustworthy) it only makes sense. - If this was part of a military operation, Mr. Uribe would have taken advantage of the release of the important hostages to immediatelly begin a frontal attack to weaken the “supposedly” weak Farc even more … things do not add up.