Safe return of the hostages
Gates says hostage rescue demonstration impressive but not right for current crisis
Lolita C. Baldor, Associated Press Writer
Thursday, October 4, 2007
TOLEMAIDA AIR BASE, Colombia (AP) - Parachutes descended slowly in the sky as Colombian Army soldiers on the ground crept toward a makeshift enemy encampment. Shots rang out, and helicopters buzzed the compound.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates, seated with other U.S. and Colombian military leaders, watched Wednesday as the military demonstration of a hostage rescue unfolded - all part of an effort to show how much progress the Colombian military has made, often with instruction from U.S. soldiers.
But, while Gates said he was greatly impressed by the exercise, he later said he would not readily advise using such an operation to rescue the three Americans currently being held by Colombian leftist rebels.
''The first objective is the safe return of the hostages, and so I think that any attempt at a rescue would have to be very, very carefully thought through,'' Gates told reporters later while flying from Colombia to Chile. ''It's a very iffy proposition. Everything has to be just right.''
The hostage situation, which has dragged on for more than four years, was thrust back into the headlines recently as Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez pursues efforts to broker a deal with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia for their release.
The three defense contractors were taken by the rebels in February 2003, when their plane crashed in the southern jungles during a surveillance mission.
Gates, who is visiting leaders in five countries in South America and Central American this week, also said on Wednesday that he agrees with limits that Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has set, including opposition to exchanging the hostages for two high-ranking FARC rebels in U.S. custody.
''The president and I had a discussion about how counterproductive it is to release convicted criminals in exchange for hostages,'' Gates said. ''And I cited a couple examples from Afghanistan how that can be a vicious cycle.''
Saying the U.S. will do everything it can to help Colombia in securing the hostages' release, Gates added that rather than a military assault, ''my view is that it probably requires more patience.''
Meanwhile, under a blazing sun at the Tolemaida base, the staged hostage rescue was a success.
The Lanceros - Colombia's answer to U.S. Army Rangers - also performed a wide array of exercises on a grassy stretch of this air base southwest of Bogota at the foot of the Andes mountains. They slid headfirst down ropes from a tower, firing their unloaded weapons at the crowd of onlookers, and rappelled from platforms several stories high.
U.S. Army officials who train the Lanceros said the Colombians' greatest need is money to buy more aircraft that would allow them to cover more of their country, which is twice the size of Texas.
About 30 U.S. Army officers serve as instructors at the base, which is mainly a training facility for about 22,000 soldiers. The U.S. officers said they help prepare the Colombians for missions, but do not go with them when they actually go after the drug lords.
The U.S. has spent billions of dollars to help Colombia battle the illegal narcotics trade and eradicate coca fields.
The White House, however, has said coca production continues to rise in Colombia, and that the country is producing more of the plant used to make cocaine than when Washington enacted the $5 billion Plan Colombia in 2000.
Also Wednesday, Gates attended a ceremony in the presidential palace where he and Colombian leaders signed an agreement providing $343,000 in U.S. funding for a children's orchestra program to help displaced families and others who have been affected by the violence here.
The Fundacion Batuta program allows more than 2,000 children, aged 7-17, to participate.
