Hostage
Nation
Hostage Nation is a story of
interaction between Columbian politics and economy. It focuses also on
Columbia’s relationship with the United States and the release of the three contractors’s
held captive in Columbia in Feb, 13th, 2003 for over five years after their
plane (Cessna plane) crashed. The U.S.A had tried to send more troops in the
rescue mission but they failed largely because of the effects of the local
sympathizers of the FARC group. The story is narrated by two Columbian journalists
who were better positioned to narrate the story. They had also recorded the kidnapping
of the presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt. Her husband’s efforts to
attempt to aid her rescue were however frustrated by his fear that her step
could culminate to her death. In 2006 the authors restructured the hostage
story into a new narrative, “the wealthiest and the lethal insurgent army in
the world”.
Botero became the focal point when
he became the first journalist to interview them and even to report that the
hostages were alive after five months. They narrate the story as it unfolds. They
provide accounts of events as they happen step by step and they even include
the fight on drugs.(plan Colombia).The U.S. policy had started during the reign
of Clinton, extended during the reign of Bush but diminished drastically during
the reign of Barrack Obama. The story, “Hostage Nation”, revolves around the
three Americans who were held hostage(Thomas Howes, Keith Stansell and Marc
Gonsalves),who worked with California Microwave systems, which worked
under Northrop Grumman, a company that
was hired to carry our plan Colombia.
The plane that had carried the
there had been downed by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (the
government of Colombia) after shooting it with several bullets and the engine
later failed. The government of U.S. avoided negotiations and remained adamant
in rescuing the hostages because they feared they could have been murdered. The
plan Colombia was attempting to wipe out the Guerrilla fighters and the drug trade.
The drug trade was rampant in 1970’s where marijuana and cocaine were being
traded. President Reagan, U.S.A had started to fight against the menace. During
the same period, kidnapping, carried out by the Columbian revolutionary Armed
Forces had started to take shape. Initially they had kidnapped an oil
exploration worker, an agricultural worker and held them and demanded for money.
They requested for 38 dollars for 7 men.
The increased sale of cocaine in
Colombia drastically falls during the period of the 2rd World War.
The FARC group was increasing at a very high rate to the extent of threatening
the government. The group became hostile with time during the period of the
late 1990’s.In 1999, they killed 136 people. They also killed Diego Turbay, who
was the Head of Congressional peace Commission in 2000.Alvaro Ulimbe, whose
father had been killed by the FARC, came into power on 26th,
May,2002 with a mission of combating the group. The period saw the FBI
investigation group under the leadership of Noesner investigating the matter of
kidnapping involving the American citizens. The three hostages and the
kidnapped presidential aspirant however are rescued in 2008.Although in May,
2003, President Uribe had attempted a military rescue, and the FARC group had
already heard the sound of the helicopters. They annihilated all the prisoners and
fled away from the area. The U.S military however did not hesitate to go on
with the routine search for the 3 American hostages.
After the U.S. airplane crashed, they
were redundant to carry out investigation. Later investigation was done through
the use of DOD and they realized that the plane crashed because they were
operating it outside its handbook limitation. Towards the end of March, 2003, there
were no traces of the Americans. Joyjoy, who was known as the military leader
of the FARC, was responsible for the series of success that the group had attained.
However, the group denied. Three hostages at the residing area of FARC had
already been separated into different cells and no communication was allowed
between. The surveillance mission of the U.S.A troops was halted for one month
after the plane crash of 13th, February, 2003.
The CMS company of U.S.A that was initially
undertaking the surveillance soon changed its name to CIAO on 24th
,February,2003 and it started its mission on 25th,March,2003.On the
same day another U.S.A plane crashed. After investigations were done at the
crash site, bullets were found on the bodies showing that the FARC group could
have been responsible for the crash. The switch from CMS to CIAO was a great
obstacle towards the relatives of the victims being compensated. Northrop
Grumman who was the former manager of the CMS Company denied the responsibility
of the second crash since the contract with his workers had ended when the name
of the company changed its name.
The involvement of the U.S.A in
drug fight was meant to protect the country’s government from accountability could
anything go haywire. The story becomes complicated because the rescue story is
intertwined with the Byzantine account of the prevailing Colombian politics.
The rescue of the three hostages is made
possible through the help of the former FBI hostage negotiator, Gary Noesner
and a journalist, Botero. During his university education, Botero Jorqe Enrique
had been arrested because of political dissidence. He had already gained a
public image after he revealed that Cali Cartel had funded the presidential
aspirant at that time, Ernesto Samper. Botero had been granted permission to
interview FARC revolutionary and also talk to his former friend Cano. He was
also given a rare access to the military videotapes and the military prisoners
who were kept there in a pathetic situation.
Botaro had a chance of
interviewing the prisoners while he was there. Although the government had
tried to put obstacles to him limiting him not to put the images to the public,
he had already shown the pathetic images to the public showing the suffering
the prisoners were undergoing. The work of Botaro met a lot of opposition
especially by the group that thought that he was supporting the FARC group. His
life was even threatened at one time
Botero was granted the access to
the hostages of the 3 Americans .The Americans thought that he was manipulating
them. The results of the interview and the research he had conducted were
handed over to the U.S.A government and that proved that indeed the hostages
were still alive. The FARC group used the hostages as a pawn to further their
interests and declared that any attempt to rescue them would directly culminate
into their execution.
High ranked officials of the group
among them Trinidad were captured in Ecuador, then later taken to Colombia and
then to U.S.A where he was charged with drug trafficking.
The end of the story presents the win The U.S
contractors the hostages are rescued and Botero asserts that as far as the
military industrial complex lives, drug wars must be pursued.
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