It’s time for a quick dose of news with Kandy Korrespondent!

On Wednesday the Colombian military successfully rescued 15 hostages from the FARC rebels. Most notable among the hostages was Ingrid Betancourt, a French-Colombian Senator and presidential candidate, who was kidnapped in 2002. Her family alongside the French government has been working tirelessly to secure her release for the past 6 years. A recent photo showing her incredibly frail caused all parties to ramp up their efforts. French Prime Minister Sarkozy made her rescue a foreign policy priority.

Also among the rescued were three DOD contractors, Marc Gonsalves, Thomas Howes and Keith Stansell who were captured in 2003 after their plane crash-landed in the Colombian jungle. The three arrived in San Antonio, Texas Wednesday night.

The Colombian rescue team posed as a civilian NGO organization that supposedly had offered to fly the rebels and the hostages to meet with rebel commander Alfonso Cano. Once they were in the air, however, the soldiers quickly overpowered the two rebels and freed the hostages. Read More »

As the rest of you are sunning yourselves on some beach in Mexico, I will be heading down to Colombia to write for a travel guidebook for six weeks. “You’re not serious,” you might be saying to me. “What with all the political crises going on?” And I reply simply, “For those reasons exactly — and because I love that country.”

If you don’t understand what’s going on down there, I’ll give you a very brief synopsis followed by an even briefer conclusion.

SYNOPSIS:
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) is the strongest Colombian rebel group and for decades has been considered a terrorist group. Despite releasing six hostages through successful negotiations with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez earlier this year, the FARC is responsible for kidnapping and continuing to hold hostage roughly 50 people near or outside Colombia’s border.

Last week, Colombia’s President Alvaro Uribe identified and raided a FARC camp across the Ecuadorean border in a small village called Santa Rosa. Raul Reyes, FARC’s second in command and a crucial member of the FARC group, was killed in the cross-border attack.

The repercussions and implications of this raid have been felt across South America, but namely between Colombia and its neighbors Ecuador and Venezuela. Colombia is breathing a sigh of relief and hopes this marks the end of the FARC’s strength and terrorist antics. Ecuador rightly reacted by ordering thousands of troops to protect its border. Read More »