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

Caribe 173The two of them filled us in on the news that they’d been hearingabout the FARC and the possibility of peace talks, hostage exchanges,and releases. We trusted them since they were Colombians, politicians,and knew the culture and all the players. Both Lucho and Ingridseemed certain that Ingrid’s release was just around the corner. In fact,she believed that the whole reason the camp we were in was built wasthat the FARC knew she was about to be released. They wanted her tosee all the prominent hostages so that she could verify that we werealive and well.“Can you believe that?” Keith said as Ingrid walked away. He lookedlike he’d taken a bite of a rotten piece of fruit. “The frickin’ princessthinks that the FARC built this castle for her alone. How arrogant isthat?”It did seem odd that she would believe that about herself. I knewthat she was just one of hundreds and hundreds of Colombians beingheld captive. That her capture had even been newsworthy in the U.S.made me think that she was one of the most prominent captives there.It didn’t matter to me; she’d obviously thought about how she’d firstgreeted us and made an about-face. She’d delivered good news and thatwas what I was focusing on. But she’d rubbed Keith the wrong way. Hewas big on hostages treating one another with as much dignity andrespect as possible to offset how badly the FARC were treating us, but Iwas willing to let her reaction go as surprise and move on.After that brief flurry of interaction, we were given some time to settlein, but no sooner had we put our things down on the benches thanone of the other women approached us again. She’d introduced herselfearlier as Clara Rojas, and now she wanted to discuss a bath schedule.Clara was very slight, almost fragile-looking, and her bright but nervoussmile seemed to flicker on and off like a neon sign with little relation towhat was being said. Clara had been Ingrid’s campaign manager andhad been with Ingrid when the FARC had taken her. Because Clara wasspeaking in Spanish, I couldn’t really understand what she was saying,