Article

2003-07-25 Europe

Paris denies orchestrating bid to free Farc hostage

Archived material is restricted to Rantburg regulars and members. If you need access email fred.pruitt=at=gmail.com with your nick to be added to the members list. There is no charge to join Rantburg as a member.

Posted by Steve 2003-07-25 3:54:40 PM|| || Front Page|| [2 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Well, lets get the rumor mill a-rollin'. Dominique di Villepin has a friendship (or more) with Mme Betancourt. If she was a student in the 1980s she should be 40 to 45 years old now, so she should still be attractive to di Villepin. [this is sounding like some lower denomination TV mystery]. Being French and sentimental, or personally attached to MB, and also a govt official di Villepin takes advantage of govt assets not being used in the Ivory Coast operation and brings a bunch of ransom booty for the FARCS. Being more interested in matters of the heart, di Villepin does not think through all the ops details that can blow his scheme out of the water. And that is my take on Mme Condom Girl.

Posted by Alaska Paul 2003-7-25 4:40:29 PM|| 2003-7-25 4:40:29 PM|| Front Page Top

#2 How's this for a conspiracy theory: It is all staged. A half-french Green candidate has more in common with FARC than most of her electorate. A little arms trade helps the FARC, and gives her a good back story to help in the next election, and screws the pro-US Columbians (who don't care if she dies). All of this makes her a Parisian's wet dream, all thanks to her former amour de Villepin. She's already experienced at political theatrics, so it's not much of a stretch.

Posted by jason 2003-7-25 7:28:42 PM|| 2003-7-25 7:28:42 PM|| Front Page Top

#3 Check your local library for "Until Death Do Us Part," by Ingrid Betancourt, published shortly before the FARC captured her.
From what I gather (from her book, from reading Yahoo! news articles on Colombia, and from piecing out Colombian news via Yahoo! with my Chicago-flavored Spanish) Betancourt is no great friend of the FARC; the FARC was just glad to get their hands on any legislators as hostages; and Betancourt is especially high profile. She was campaigning in the election that ultimately led to Alvaro Uribe's defeat of Pres. Andres Pastrana's handpicked successor. Pastrana's party stood for crooked business as usual. FARC wouldn't have been able to run for years if the Colombian govt weren't as twisty as corkscrews. You can't get anything done without having to buy 37 permits, each of which requires a bribe to get it processed. One classic example: The govt tried to establish a medical clinic in a remote area for the poor. By the time the local caciques take their cuts in bribes, the clinic doesn't have enough money to install the equipment or staff the place.

The drug cartels own politicians and cops; the FARC own some of these too. Betancourt deserves all the help she can get, given her raw courage in exposing these operations.

So do some homework before you start spinning theories.

Posted by mom 2003-7-25 9:37:12 PM|| 2003-7-25 9:37:12 PM|| Front Page Top

#4 I don't think "So do some homework before you start spinning theories" was necessary, MOM. But from her book and your other extensive sources( a noted subjective source, Yahoo - hey? have you ever heard of bias? See Rooters, Guardian, AP, LATimes et al) - refuting any future conjecture I could generate, I defer to the master(ess?) and will stop thinking...thks...not

Posted by Frank G 2003-7-25 11:14:58 PM|| 2003-7-25 11:14:58 PM|| Front Page Top

#5 Mme Betancourt may be the altruistic hostage of FARC. Heaven knows how corrupt Colombia is through and through. My question is still why all the covert French ops for something that still looks like a ransom deal.

The French may have ultierior motives, in the line of getting the Elf and co. in there for oil. But I cannot help thinking that they would be using just one herc load of ransom to do the job. They would have to be doing lots more nefarious things besides bringing in a 20K-40K lb load of cargo just for FARC.

Posted by Alaska Paul 2003-7-25 11:25:49 PM|| 2003-7-25 11:25:49 PM|| Front Page Top

00:38 PD
00:11 PD
00:01 PD
23:56 PD
23:46 PD
23:25 Alaska Paul
23:24 Frank G
23:22 Fred
23:14 Frank G
23:06 tu3031
23:03 tu3031
23:01 Old Patriot
22:57 11A5S
22:52 tu3031
22:41 tu3031
21:37 mom
21:31 Old Patriot
20:59 Alaska Paul
20:54 Zhang Fei
20:54 Alaska Paul
20:53 Frank G
20:52 Frank G
20:52 Frank G
20:51 Zhang Fei