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

Caribe 191tivity. There were plenty of them in camp and we were glad for this,regardless of who owned them. Listening to the radio became animportant ritual in our lives, the one thing above all else that unitedthe ten of us. No matter how bad things were going in the camp, nomatter what the petty disputes were, the unstated rule was that you didwhatever you could to notify whoever was getting a message from hisor her family on the air. We had only been in camp a day or two whenwe were all sitting and listening to the program Radio Difusora. It wasan evening message program, and we were all in the hooch. At thathour it was dark enough to get good reception on the AM band but notdark enough to use our precious supply of candles. As we sat there inthe fading light of the day, Marc’s mother’s voice came out clear andstrong. She told him that she missed him and loved him and that heshould keep the faith. She added that people were “in a commotion”about us being in the jungle. She went on to tell Keith and me individuallythat our families were okay and that we were going to be okay.We all felt wonderful, and took her words about the “commotion” as apositive sign.Unfortunately, November of 2003 brought news via the radio that letus know we might not make it out for a long time—if ever. PresidentUribe announced that he was no longer going to negotiate to get anyhostages out; the only option, he said, was rescue. In his statement,Uribe repeated something he’d apparently said back in May regardingthe hostages the FARC had killed during the failed rescue operation.He would only support rescue operations, and hostages wouldbe released by fuego y sangre—fire and blood. Those words sent a chillthrough all of us, and set off a discussion.Jorge said, “I have heard these words, or ones like them, before fromUribe. I have not forgotten them in the months since he uttered them,‘The failure to rescue many of the hostages,’ said Uribe, ‘cannot beattributed to the lack of political will, but to the lack of technical assis-