Colombia is winning its war against terrorism

Not long ago I wrote a column about how congressional Democrats, led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco, are blocking a mutually beneficial free trade agreement with Colombia, our best friend and strongest ally in Latin America.

I hope Ms. Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and other Democratic leaders will reconsider their frivolous opposition to the Colombia Free Trade Agreement in the wake of a highly successful rescue mission 10 days ago that freed 11 hostages, including a former Colombian presidential candidate and three American defense contractors without a shot being fired. A top guerrilla commander was captured in the undercover operation and the three Americans spent the Fourth of July with their families in Texas. The other seven hostages were Colombian military personnel; all 11 of them had been held in captivity since 2002, when they were captured by Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC, in Spanish) guerrillas, who still hold 700 hostages in a 40-year-old undeclared war.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the rescue has boosted the political standing of Colombia's popular conservative president, Alvaro Uribe, whose father was killed by leftist guerrillas. "Since he took office in 2002, (he) has launched an aggressive military campaign against the FARC, which funds itself largely through drug trafficking, extortion and kidnapping ...." I agree with my good friend, knowledgeable political blogger Ty Cobb, that it's time to stop glamorizing these violent thugs and to punish them for their crimes, including kidnapping and murder. Enough of that fuzzy-headed Che Guevara nonsense; he was a failed guerrilla who died trying to convince Bolivian peasants that violence was the path to a better future.

The Colombian rescue operation was a model of cooperation between soldiers and spies. The Journal reported that "it involved giving Hollywood-style acting lessons to undercover military officers who duped the guerrillas into handing over the hostages." According to the Journal, one officer played the role of an Australian leftist who supposedly belonged to a private group sympathetic to the FARC rebels.

"I swear he (the officer) was right out of 'Crocodile Dundee,'" said Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos. The plan succeeded, the Journal revealed, because military intelligence had been able to convince guerilla leader Gerardo Aguilar that he was communicating with his top bosses in FARC's seven-man secretariat.

The Journal reported: "When the (rescue) helicopter landed, one undercover officer strolled off to take pictures of the jungle, as a tourist might do. Two other officers disguised as a TV news crew (from Venezuela's leftist Telesur Network) ... rushed Mr. Aguilar and started interviewing him." Once the hostages and Aguilar were aboard the helicopter, their rescuers told the hostages they were free and arrested the stunned guerrilla leader and a bodyguard.

The Journal reported the mission underlined the close ties between Washington and Bogota. "Trust between both sides is so strong that Mr. Uribe told Republican presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain, who was visiting Colombia, about the mission . . . the night before it took place." And for his part, President Bush praised his Colombian counterpart and U.S. intelligence agents who had helped to plan the raid. Colombia, the third largest recipient of U.S. military aid behind Israel and Egypt, has received more than $5 billion in such aid since 2002.

But over the Fourth of July weekend, as Colombians and Americans celebrated a successful rescue mission that freed three American hostages, congressional Democrats continued to block a free trade agreement that would benefit U.S. farmers to the tune of nearly $700 million per year. Go figure!

Guy W. Farmer, of Carson City, is a retired diplomat who served in Colombia for three challenging years (1973-76) during his U.S. Foreign Service career.