NEW YORK—Five years after being kidnapped and held in captivity by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), three U.S. government contractors are finally free. Marc Gonsalves, Thomas Howes, and Keith Stansell, along with ex-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt and 11 others, were rescued on Wednesday in a Colombian military operation.
The last time Gonsalves, Howes, and Stansell were on American soil was in February of 2003, when they took off on a plane for a counternarcotics operation. Their plane crashed in the jungles of Colombia and the three Northop Grumman contractors joined the more than 700 hostages FARC has held.
On Wednesday night shortly before midnight, Gonsalves, Howes, and Stansell landed in the United States in an Air Force aircraft at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. They were then flown by helicopter to Fort Sam Houston's medical facilities.
According to witnesses in San Antonio, all three looked "healthy." Thomas Howes' niece Amanda said about his uncle, "he looks healthy [but] tired. I can't wait to see him." George Gonsalves noted of his son Marc, "he looks pretty thin [and] exhausted. But he's alive."
"They are very grateful, very excited to be home," proclaimed Air Force staff Sgt. Daryl Bradley, who was on the flight with the three men from Colombia to San Antonio. After medical tests, they began reuniting with their families yesterday.
Libéré!
Betancourt, a Colombia-French dual citizen who served as a Colombia senator from 1998 to 2002, was held in custody by the FARC for almost six and a half years before being freed with the three U.S. defense contractors.
Betancourt was kidnapped by FARC extremists when she was campaigning to become Colombia's president, and brushed off suggestions by the police and military not to campaign in areas where FARC controlled.
After being released Wednesday, she acted as if her campaign had never been on hiatus, announcing that she still wants to "serve Colombia as president." After being reunited with her children Melanie and Lorenzo, she vowed to make sure all FARC hostages could follow in her footsteps. "I am going to work for those hostages still being held," she stated, adding, "not just to get them home, but to get them home soonest."
Ruse to Rescue
The release of the fifteen FARC hostages was a result of a massive and daring secret military operation that took place within the deepest confines of the FARC. Secret agents infiltrated the FARC months before the actual operation to lead the hostages out of Colombia.
Agents started at the bottom of the FARC ladder and slowly won the trust of the top FARC leaders. They managed to weasel into spots on the leadership council and the team that managed the hostages.
When the time was right, the agents duped their "fellow FARC members" into leading the hostages across the jungle almost 100 miles away, telling them that an "international mission" was on their way to meet with the hostages. Little did the real FARC members know that this was just a ruse.
Once at their destination, the FARC fighters and the hostages rendezvoused with a disguised military helicopter. Agents disguised as FARC rebels loaded the hostages on the helicopter, leaving all but two real FARC rebels behind. Once on board, the agents convinced FARC insurgents to hand them their guns, and then tied and handcuffed them.
The Colombian secret agents could now inform the hostages of the ploy, and subsequently announced to them, "We are the national military. You are free."
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