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

Caribe 187from the two people who had claimed more than half of the limitedopen area we had as their own. We weren’t raising our voices much,just doing what Tom was doing—trying to be reasonable. Ingrid andLucho created such a ruckus that Rogelio, one of the FARC guards thatthe three of us couldn’t stand, came in and intervened. He got themto quiet down and then he basically took our side and finished up bysaying that Ingrid needed to learn to respect other people. It was a bigmoment; all of the politicals were watching this go down, and in ourbrief time there, it was the first instance we’d seen Ingrid being put inher place by a guard.I’d like to say that the three of us hugged and made up, but we didn’t.Things improved among us but we didn’t need to say anything. Thepoint was clear. We were brothers. We fought like brothers, and we hadone another’s backs like brothers do. I’d also like to say that Ingrid andLucho did learn to respect us more and to climb down from their highhorses, but that didn’t happen, either. It was in their nature. They werepoliticians and they’d been spouting their own praises for so long theyhad begun to believe everything they said about themselves.In some ways, they were on the campaign trail and we were the voters.They would tell us whatever they thought we wanted to hear andhad no trouble lying. At that first meeting, when we were supposed totalk about how to improve our prison life, Ingrid flatly denied tellinganyone she wanted us out of the camp, even though we had heardher say as much with our own ears. In just about every conversation,it seemed like Lucho worked in a statement of his belief that Ingridwould become the president of Colombia when she was released.“Is that coffee warm?” he would ask. “Well, when Ingrid is presidentsoon after her release, everyone’s coffee will be ever warm.”The two of them spent their days plotting and planning a newColombia together. Despite the drama, gossip, and backstabbing thatseemed to follow Ingrid around, I had to admit the woman could getthings done that benefited us all. The hooch only had a windowless