Jaque, a “perfect” rescue operation

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“Perfect”. The term Íngrid Betancourt used to refer to the military operation which rescued her and another 14 kidnapped from FARC couldn’t be more exact. Yes, perfect. So perfect there have already been cast doubts on it. As they say in Colombia, “todo lo del pobre es robado” ("everything a poor owns has been stealt), so they’re claiming it was set up by the gringos, an Uribe conspiracy so he can get saved from "yidispolitics", even with FARC’s complicity, and so on…

But no. I don’t think so. There are several reasons supporting top military chiefs’ statements on the Operation Jaque made in Colombia. 

The first thing has to do with former hostage releases. The movements of the FARC’s unilaterally released kidnapped people early this year were useful to set up with certainty the area where another hostages could be located. Here there indeed was American advisement as the top military chiefs recognize, and even Israeli assistance if we trust the latest news. Being the hostages exactly located through satellite maps, with the intelligence infrastructure assembled and then with commando approachs on terrain, the operation Jaque started with the infiltration.

Here a fundamental element on the war dynamics having to do with FARC’s serious internal communication issues arises. The sophisticated technology permitting the exact location of the places where communication signals are emitted from made FARC to revert to the old-fashion ways, the so-called human mails. This has caused a virtual uncommunication between the different guerrilla fronts, a situation the Colombian military has taken advantage of in order to organize this rescue operation.

Without another way to confirm besides the human mails the orders concerning the reuniting of the three hostages groups to deliver them to an international humanitarian mission which would take them with Alfonso Cano, the trick could be set up. These mails, as it was learnt, were Army spies. César though the orders came from the Secretariat and, for sure, there may have been some help from the mails found on Raúl Reyes’s laptops to adapt to the Mono Jojoy and Alfonso Cano himself "style" to issue the respective orders.

As César was convinced that he was in communication with the Secretariat, the context also provided credibility. First, the command change. Being MarulandaCano appointed to substitute him dead and , it didn’t turn out suspicious a change on the treatment of the kidnapped, as well as their relocation to meet the new chief in order to seek a possible release.

Besides this, France’s appearance provided an accidental assistant to the operation. Let’s remember that, in these days, there were strong rumours about the establishment of some kind of communication with Cano and that their representatives were in Colombia at the time, a step publicly approved by the Colombian government.

Making up an international humanitarian mission was the last step. Even the helicopter that picked the kidnapped up was very similar to those sent by Chávez to do the same with the former released. The Colombian army helicopter was also painted white and, instead orange, some of its parts were simply changed for red. It’s not risky to think that they were trying to show the guerrilla fighters there was some kind of Venezuelan involvement in this.

As you can see, besides the mainly technological first stage, there was no need for foreign help to set the racket up. Even the commandos were Colombian, as Íngrid herself told, until the point that one of them unsuccessfully tried to imitate a crude French accent which Íngrid took as a joke and outraged her before riding the helicopter.

Ys, a perfect operation, which accomplished the goal of rescueing 15 kidnapped, without firing a single shot. Nevertheless, it’s worrying that a humanitarian mission façade had been used to achieve the goal. It was effective for the moment but, looking to the future, this kind of missions now are called into question, therefore it will be difficult that FARC turn to them for future hostage releases.

Nevertheless, no matter if you agree or not with the Uribe administration’s policies, the Operation Jaque provokes admiration and fills with joy all Colombians for allowing the release of 15 kidnapped, and showing the world the disgrace of this degraded guerrilla group, now turned into the best advertising agency for the Democratic Security and Álvaro Uribe Vélez’s second re-election bid.

This article was originally published 4 July 2008 in equinoXio. Translated by Julián Ortega Martínez

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