Joined by His Captor, Hostage of Colombian Rebels Escapes - Download Free Phim, Nhac, Phan Mem, Karaoke

conmeo · #1 (**permalink**) 10-27-2008, 03:34 AM

BOGOTÁ, Colombia (Reuters) — A former Colombian lawmaker kidnapped more than eight years ago by FARC rebels escaped through the jungle with one of his rebel captors on Sunday.

Wearing a tattered black T-shirt and sporting a tangled gray beard, the former congressman, Óscar Lizcano, 63, said at a news conference that he had marched for three days with his rebel jailer before reaching an army post on Sunday. The guerrilla then surrendered to troops.

Mr. Lizcano, who was kidnapped in 2000 and suffers from jungle diseases, was the FARC’s longest-held politician. Rebels still hold dozens of hostages for political leverage and ransom.

Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos said Sunday that Colombian troops and police officers had begun an operation to free Mr. Lizcano over the weekend, based on information from a rebel who had defected in early October. But Mr. Lizcano and his captor were already on the run as the raid began to develop.

“The army was pressuring us, we were starving — that made me make the decision,” Mr. Lizcano’s former captor, who was identified by the alias Isaza, said in a video that showed him meeting with President Álvaro Uribe after the escape.

Mr. Uribe said Isaza would be paid a bounty and allowed to live in France with his companion, in a deal the government has promised to members of FARC who surrender with hostages. The rebel group’s full name is the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.

Mr. Lizcano’s escape came nearly four months after the French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt, three Americans and a group of other hostages were freed in a surprise military operation.

The highly publicized losses of prisoners have been heavy blows for FARC, whose decades-old insurgency has been weakened in the past year by heavy pressure from the Colombian military, which is supported by the United States. The rebel group has lost three leaders this year.

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