Out of Captivity : Surviving 1,967 Days in the Colombian Jungle

146 OUT OF CAPTIVITYMilton and another guard. They started talking and eventually thenews leaked out to us that Colin Powell, the God-bless-him-four-stargeneralsecretary of state of the United States of America, had justbeen in Colombia on our behalf. We were all completely jacked up tohear that.Immediately our brains’ motors spun up and we were wonderingwho else besides the press might show up at our proof of life. Wethought of the U.S. ambassador to Colombia at the time, Anne Patterson,other possible State Department officials, maybe even representativesof Northrop Grumman. We also talked about what Colombianofficials might be there—Interior and Justice Minister Fernando Londoñoand others.Once back on the boat, we were handed blindfolds and a lame apologyfrom Sombra for the “necessity.” A short while later, they placed usunder black plastic, but the smell of gas under there was making us allsick. We raised hell until they lifted the plastic and let us remain visiblethe rest of the way. After a four- to six-hour boat ride, we were led off theboats by our harnesses and up an incline. The sounds of the jungle andthe boat motor were replaced by the noises of passing cars and humanvoices. We were placed in some kind of vehicle—likely the back of oneof their Toyota Land Cruiser trucks—and driven off. We could feel thebreeze on our faces and hear the hum of civilization all around us.When we stopped, we were helped out of the truck, and a guard tookeach of us by his harness and cord. They led us along a wooden boardwalk,and as we walked, chatter from a crowd gathered and the roar ofa portable generator rose up around us.I assumed that we were being taken somewhere like a hotel roomor someplace else for the prueba de vida, but when we were sat down inchairs and our blindfolds were removed, I saw that we were in anothersmall twelve-by-twelve room made of tablas. Just as we had been whenwe met Gómez, Ramírez, and Mono JoJoy, we were now zoo animals.A whole group of FARC we’d never seen before passed by the open