Law of the Jungle: The Hunt for Colombian Guerrillas, American Hostages, and Buried Treasure
In July 2008, Colombia’s army foisted a brilliant ruse upon its Marxist enemy, the FARC. Masquerading as humanitarian workers, soldiers tricked the FARC into handing over its most valuable hostages: three American military contractors whose plane had crashed into the jungle (FARC murdered their two comrades on the spot); Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt; and several Colombian police and military personnel. Journalist Otis’ intensive depiction of that operation culminates his chronicle of how the victims fell into the clutches of the FARC, the ordeal of captivity, and their relatives’ pressure to obtain their release. Otis frames such specifics with the decades-long rebellion by the FARC and its resorting to extortion, drug trafficking, and kidnapping to finance itself. A Colombian army unit that discovered a stash of FARC cash while searching for the hostages is a story told in parallel to the prisoners’ narratives of abusive treatment. With its Conradian atmosphere of jungle-induced madness and an immediacy stemming from interviews with many of the participants, this will engage all who follow Colombian politics. --Gilbert Taylor