Don't be fooled by terrorists holding hostages

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Colombia-Betancourt.html

This article was written by the Associated Press and published today on the website of the NYTimes. It's an uniformed portrayal of the ongoing hostages crisis in Columbia and I want to examine it.

There's a suggestion here that, because Ingrid Betancourt's family wants her freed and the Columbian government hasn't produced that freedom, that they are at fault. The problem with this reasoning, however, is that the reader has no means judge whether or not it's based on historical reality. Almost no information is provided about either the FARC organization or its decade-long conflict with the Columbian government. "Duh, if da Coloombien's don't want da, uh, freedem fur dem hostajiz, uh, dey'z can't be no goad."

The implication that Columbian president Uribe has failed in his diplomatic efforts -- because compared to past regimes he hasn't "ceded a Switzerland-sized safe haven to the FARC" -- is nonsense. From what I understand, whatever agreement exist between the country's previous president and the FARC organization was betrayed by that organization -- therefore talks collapsed and deep mistrust exists. (If I'm mistaken about this please tell me.)

I'm sorry, but how the f___ can someone characterize reaching an agreement with a kidnapping organization as "reaching out"? 'Reaching out' commonly means voluntarily aiding someone in need, and negotiating for release of hostages held for years under poor conditions by a terroristic 'political' groups does not fall under this category. The FARC have committed human rights violations, survive by operating cocaine cartels, and regularly extort and kill.

Furthermore, stating that Venezuela wants the FARC removed from the list of worldwide terror groups is true, but failing to mention that the U.S., the EU, and other S. American countries have already rejected this proposal is misleading.

This is a complex socio-political situation, and it can't be reduced to government callousness and the strong feelings of the relatives of hostages. Ingrid Betancourt's ordeal is abominable -- and I would wish it on no one -- but the needs of an individual cannot trump those of a nation.

And if Uribe's government were to accept the FARC's conditions for a prisoner exchange? The groups released soldiers could then return to organization, further stoke civil war conditions, and engender more kidnappings! Because if the FARC receive what they wish, what's to stop them from doing the same thing again -- destroying the life of another innocent person and their family?

Bad journalism seems have a compunction to present two sides of every story as though those two sides are always universally equivalent! This is neither real, nor possible, when one side is a democratically elected government and the other terroristic drug-traffickers.