Colombian hostage seeks Castro's help, jail in Cuba
IANS Wednesday 16th January, 2008
An ailing former Colombian senator held hostage by leftist rebels since
2002 has asked Cuban President Fidel Castro to intervene on his behalf,
saying he would be willing to remain a prisoner in Cuba in order to
receive medical treatment.
Jorge Gechem's request comes from a letter made public Tuesday.
Former legislator Consuelo Gonzalez - released last week after more than
six years as a hostage of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
(FARC) - Monday handed letters and photographs to the families of Gechem
and seven other hostages.
Lucy de Gechem, wife of the former senator - who was kidnapped on Feb
20, 2002 - told Colombian radio that he has a stomach ulcer, which often
bleeds, and heart problems that have already caused him five pre-heart
attack scares.
The politician reportedly asked his wife to beg Castro 'on bent knees'
to intercede with FARC for him, and offered to remain a prisoner in a
Cuban jail instead of the Colombian jungle.
Released hostage Gonzalez handed over letters and photographs of Gechem,
former legislators Gloria Polanco and Orlando Beltran, former governor
Alan Jara, Lt. Col. Luis Mendieta, Captains Enrique Murillo and William
Donato and Sergeant Harvey Delgado.
Relatives of the hostages read out to the media fragments of the
letters, telling of their suffering in captivity.
One of the most shocking testimonies was that of Lt. Col. Mendieta,
kidnapped nine years ago, who says rebels sometimes force him to
defecate in the pot from which he eats.
In tears, his wife Maria Teresa de Mendieta asked Colombian President
Alvaro Uribe to reach an agreement with FARC soon for the exchange of
hostages for imprisoned rebels.
'It is not physical pain that stops me, nor the chains on my neck that
torment me, but the mental agony, the bad guy's evil and the good guy's
indifference, as if we were worth nothing, as if we did not exist,' the
officer said in a letter read by his sobbing daughter Jenny.
Mendieta said illness had left him unable to move his legs, so he has
had to drag himself in the mud to move amid the indifference of his guards.
'At the beginning of the illness I walked with a piece of wood that
functioned as a stick. Then I had to walk with the help of two brackets
that functioned as crutches. What painful journeys! I had to drag myself
to the bathroom through the mud just with the help of my arms because I
could not get up,' the policeman said in his letter.
Mendieta added that many times his captors carried him on a stretcher
since he could not walk.
After her release, Gonzalez said she was committed to seeking an
exchange in order to secure the release of fellow hostages she left
behind in the jungle.
The former legislator said military and police officers suffer the most
in captivity and are in chains 24 hours a day.
In remarks published by Colombian media Tuesday, President Uribe offered
to remove leftist rebels from lists of terrorist organizations if a
peace process was initiated.
'The moment FARC show good faith, the government is willing to grant
them full benefits in accordance with the constitution, to facilitate
that peace process,' Uribe said in Guatemala City late Monday.
'And the moment peace with FARC advances, the Colombian government would
be the first to stop calling them terrorists and the first to ask the
world to cease calling them terrorists as a contribution to peace,' he said.
He had earlier said that, at the moment, Colombian rebels could not be
referred to as anything other than terrorists.
'Colombia's violent groups are terrorists because they recruit and
mistreat minors, attack pregnant women and elderly people, hurl bombs
against the civilian population and deal in drugs,' Uribe said.
It was the Colombian president's first comment since Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez requested last week that the international
community stop calling FARC terrorists. Uribe did not mention Chavez by
name.
FARC are estimated to hold more than 750 people hostage, including
around 50 they consider politically relevant and they hope to exchange
for at least 500 imprisoned rebels.
No comments:
Post a Comment