Bogota - Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and top military
officials addressed the country late Wednesday to explain the daring
rescue operation to freed former presidential candidate Ingrid
Betancourt and 14 other hostages held by leftist rebels.
'Everything was meticulously prepared,' Uribe said in a televised
address.
The 12 Colombian hostages rescued Monday were on hand as the
authorities detailed the rescue, codenamed Operation Jaque, the
Spanish chess term for check, as in checkmate.
The other three captives - US military contractors Thomas Howes,
Keith Stansell and Marc Gonsalves - were immediately flown to the US,
where they landed shortly before midnight at an Air Force base in San
Antonio, Texas.
Operation Jaque, which lasted just over 22 minutes, was the result
of an infiltration of the guerrilla hierarchy, Colombian authorities
said.
Colombian commandos posing as fellow rebels apparently tricked the
FARC captors into handing over the hostages into their custody,
allowing them to helicopter the captives to freedom.
The handcuffed captives themselves were taken in by the military's
ruse, she said, believing they were being subjected to another
transfer among remote rebel bases, only for the government troops to
reveal their identities after the doors were closed and the aircraft
was aloft.
Two rebels who boarded the helicopter were taken into custody.
Uribe stressed that the military left some 60 rebels on the ground
when the helicopter took off.
'We had taken the decision not to shoot them. We were interested
in rescuing the kidnapped,' he said.
Uribe said that the decision not to fire on the rebels left behind
was partly to send a message to FARC, hoping that the group's
remaining hostages will be treated well.
After addressing the nation, Uribe acted as a talk show host with
Defence Minister Juan Manuel Santos, General Freddy Padilla and
General Mario Montoya, who discussed the operation.
Santos said that the families of the hostages were not informed in
advance, to avoid endangering the operation.
'The risk for the kidnapped was always minimal,' he insisted.
Early in the planning for the mission, which took many months to
orchestrate, the intelligence officials who first devised the rescue
'were considered mad.'
Uribe stressed that 'there was never any improvisation' in the
operation, while Padilla said that the operation was kept 'simple'
and was based on infiltration of the guerrillas.
Montoya said that Colombian intelligence infiltrated FARC's seven-
member leadership council.
'Your birthday is July 4, and this is your present from the
Colombian Armed Forces,' Padilla told Uribe.
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