Colombia’s FARC rebels release captive held 12 years

Reporting from Bogota, Colombia — 

Leftist rebels on Tuesday freed one of Colombia’s longest-held hostages, an army corporal seized by insurgents when they overran his base in December 1997.

The release of Pablo Emilio Moncayo, 31, came two days after rebels freed Pvt. Josue Daniel Calvo in Meta state. Calvo, who had been held for 11 months, is being treated in a Bogota military hospital for leg wounds he suffered in a battle at the time of his capture.

The liberation of the pair has raised hope for a comprehensive hostage-prisoner swap between the leftists and the government of President Alvaro Uribe, who is to leave office in August. An exchange has been stalled by the rebels’ demand that they take control of two townships and Uribe’s that freed guerrillas swear to not return to their ranks.

Moncayo’s 12 years of captivity ended when members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, handed him over in Caqueta state to a group that included officials of the International Committee of the Red Cross and leftist Colombian Sen. Piedad Cordoba.

A Brazilian helicopter crew flew Moncayo about 100 miles to Florencia, the state capital, late Tuesday, after the flight had been delayed by the weather.

Among those on hand to greet him in Florencia was his father, Gustavo, who campaigned for Moncayo’s release by walking hundreds of miles and wearing chains he swore to keep on until his son was liberated.

The armed forces had agreed to suspend operations in the zone to facilitate the release. Florencia was the scene of the FARC rebels’ kidnapping in December of Caqueta Gov. Luis Francisco Cuellar, whom they killed as army units closed in.

At least 22 police officers, soldiers and politicians are believed still to be held by the FARC, in addition to hundreds of people being held for ransom.

The government is holding 200 or more suspected rebels.

Moncayo was captured when guerrillas overran an army base in Putumayo state near the country’s southern border with Ecuador. Twenty-two soldiers were killed and 18 seized in one of many such army defeats before the massive infusion of U.S. military aid under the aegis of Plan Colombia.

Sen. Cordoba has served as one of the few links between rebels and the Uribe government. Her intervention was key in the release in 2008 and ’09 of 12 hostages. Fifteen other hostages held by the FARC, including three U.S. defense contractors, were freed in a raid by Colombian commandos in July 2008.

Moncayo’s family waited 10 years after his capture for a proof of life, which came in a 2007 video of the soldier in which he asked Uribe to open peace negotiations with his rebel captors.

Kraul is a special correspondent.