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'Proof Of Life' Tape Shows Hostages

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By CHRIS KRAUL, Los Angeles Times

Published: December 1, 2007

CARACAS, Venezuela - Colombian authorities reported Friday they had recovered "proof of life" videos showing three U.S. hostages and a former Colombian presidential candidate who has been held captive by leftist guerrillas for nearly six years.

The discovery brought hope to the hostages' families but was bound to fan the flames of a heated dispute that saw Colombian President Alvaro Uribe abruptly call off the mediation efforts of his leftist Venezuelan counterpart, Hugo Chavez, in the long-running hostage ordeal. Analysts said the tapes might also raise pressure on Uribe to secure the release of the captives.

The videos came to light after officials in Bogota, the Colombian capital, seized three suspected members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as the FARC, on Thursday evening. Circumstances of the captures were not disclosed. The tapes were time-stamped January and October 2007.

On one of the tapes, Ingrid Betancourt, the presidential candidate who was captured in early 2002, looks gaunt and downcast with one wrist chained. U.S. defense contractors Thomas Howes, Keith Stansell and Marc Gonsalves, who were captured when their plane crash-landed in the Colombian jungle in February 2003, were also shown.

The videos offered the first "proof of life" of Betancourt and the three Americans in more than four years. Also captured were letters and documents, including a will written by Howes that was dated just Monday. The videos also pictured about a dozen Colombian politicians, police and army officials who are also being held.

Family members of hostages called on Uribe to return Chavez to the negotiating table. "I want Chavez back in this again," Howes' wife, Mariana, said. "He was the only hope we had."

"These tapes are the fruits of Chavez's work," said Angela Perez, wife of kidnapped former Sen. Luis Eladio Perez.

In late August, Uribe gave Chavez the green light to broker a humanitarian accord to bring about the release of 45 political prisoners in FARC hands in exchange for hundreds of rebels in government jails.

But Uribe terminated Chavez's role Nov. 21, saying he had overstepped protocol in his mediation efforts and that the FARC was merely angling for international legitimacy and had no intention of relieving the agony of the hostages and their families.

That led to a bitter exchange by both leaders, with Chavez complaining that he had been treated unfairly and Uribe responding that Chavez wanted to legitimize terrorism.

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