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

Proof of Life 149Just as she began to translate, a civilian, who could speak English aswell, walked in carrying a video camera and it was clear he was taping.“My name is Jorge Enrique Botero,” he said, addressing the three ofus. Before we could get any questions out, he turned to Marc. “I have amessage for you from your mother.”MARCI wasn’t sure what to expect from the proof of life, but when Botero utteredthose words, I realized just how hard this was going to be.After telling me that he had a message from my mother, Boteroimmediately turned his back on me and stepped to the other side ofthe table. I was stunned by what he had said and I couldn’t figure outwhy he hadn’t given me the message. The last thing I expected out ofthis POL was to hear from anyone in my family. I willed myself to focuson what was going on.Mono JoJoy started telling us that we were being held because wehad violated the FARC’s national sovereignty. We’d heard this lameexplanation before and found it laughable—a terrorist organization isnot a sovereign nation. JoJoy went on, with the young woman translatingfor him.“From the moment you crashed,” he said, “you are part of the groupof prisoners of war. Our mission is to keep you alive to do the exchangeof prisoners.”That was the clearest statement of their intent we’d had since all thisbegan, but it also wiped out any hope of a unilateral release—somethingwe’d been told would happen from the time we were on the twentyfour-daymarch. At that point, Keith stepped in and spoke up for all ofus, hoping to get more clarification.“If Colombian president Uribe refuses to negotiate,” he said, “if hedoesn’t go along with the idea of prisoner exchange, then we could behere for five or ten years. How are you going to get us out of here?”“Negotiations will begin.” JoJoy responded. “We don’t know when.