news from columbia
 

BOGOTA, Colombia - Seven tourists kidnapped two months ago by rebels in the jungles of northern Colombia looked worn and complained of being hungry in a video broadcast Wednesday.

The video shows the National Liberation Army's red-and-black flag hanging in the background, with heavily armed rebels in camouflage uniforms watching over the captives.

"We have had to walk a lot, in places we never imagined existed in Colombia," Asier Huegen Echeverria, a 29-year-old Spaniard, said in the video. "We have suffered cold and hunger, and been feeding ourselves from the land."
It was not clear when the video was made.

Eight tourists — four Israelis, two Britons, a German and a Spaniard — were seized by the National Liberation Army, or ELN, from ancient jungle ruins in northern Colombia's Sierra Nevada mountains on Sept. 12. One of them, a teenage Briton, escaped soon after the capture.

British hostage Mark Henderson, a TV producer in London, assured his family and friends that the rebels weren't harming him.

"I want to tell you that I'm OK, that I'm being treated well," said the 31-year-old, speaking in English. "You can see my beard has grown. I've gotten thinner, started smoking again, but desperate times, desperate measures."

Henderson's mother, Sharelle, said in Britain that her family was delighted to see the tape.

"It's fantastic to actually see him again," she said. "He looked fine, reasonably well."

Hundreds of Colombian soldiers have been searching for the captives in the dense jungles, which soar up from Colombia's Caribbean coast.

Vice President Francisco Santos said the Colombian government is doing everything it can to ensure the hostages "get out of this safely." He said the blame, however, lies with the rebels, and that they are responsible for the hostages' well-being.

"Without a doubt, this is the ELN's fault, not the Colombian government's," he said.

The ELN said it seized the tourists to raise awareness about the suffering of the mainly Indian inhabitants of the region at the hands of right-wing paramilitary groups and the army. They called for an international commission to visit the area.

In the video, Reinhile Weigel, the German hostage, urged the Colombian government to create the commission "to see what is happening here."

"A lot of people here are hungry, which I myself have now experienced," Weigel said, speaking in German.

Colombia suffers an average of 3,000 kidnappings every year — more than the rest of the world combined. The ELN and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as the FARC, have been battling the government for 39 years and are responsible for most of the abductions.


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John

hola,

yes, Colombia is a bit dangerous.

I spend three months (09.2002 - 12.2002) riding in Colombia, and I will go back soon.

yes, most of the tourists are Israelis, Germans and a few Brits.

Colombia is not a tourist place - and the ruins in the jungle are the places the few tourists go. I never went to this places, this are the dangerous places.

Talk to the people, ask the guys from the HU communities, and use your brain. And dont believe everything you see on CNN !!

Or maybe I was just lucky.

Mika - German

RTW since 1999 on a yamaha tenere

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Wow... what a great source of info on Colombia. Thanks for sharing and reaffirming why I flew from Panama to Ecuador back in May ('03).

Steve

www.bikerswithoutborders.org

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Of the 3000, I wonder how many are tourists? And I wonder how the number of kidnapped tourists compares to the number injured/killed on the roads...?

Michael...

I don't have any numbers, but it would be intresing to see some. They specifically target tourists in many cases, since they believe they are all rich. I am sure a good number of locals are victoms as well, but why kidnap some farmer that is as poor as you are. They don't have any money to give even if they wanted to. Also by getting tourists they are publicly hurting "the foreign opresers." Remember they have to not only make money to buy guns, but keep the goodwill of the local population to assist them in hiding from the government. I'm not an expert in the reigon by far, but I talked to a guy that spent some time there in the military. Granted that view can be biased a bit, but this guy was the type that could cut through the bull s*&t.

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John