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

SEVENCaribeOctober 2003–December 2003MARCOn October 20 of 2003, we approached the political prisoners’ campwith real anticipation. It didn’t take long for that feeling to be replacedby dread. In front of us stood a large compound completely surroundedby chain-link fence topped with barbed wire. Spaced at intervals aroundthis rectangle stood six elevated guard shacks, manned by guards withautomatic weapons. Inside the perimeter fence, a second chain-linkfence completed another rectangle. Within that enclosure was a largestructure, as big as a two-car garage. We all stopped and looked at thisbrutal reality: For the first time, we were in a compound that remindedus of the photos we’d seen of actual POW camps—not the neat andclean camps from Hollywood like in The Great Escape or Stalag 17, buta dingy, used version of them.Sombra urged us on and paraded us around the perimeter of thecompound, still outside the main fence. As we walked along the first