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

Choices and Challenges3did not take themselves too seriously. I was also getting to know a cultureand a place far different from my own, and a few times a week mycoworkers and I would fly over some of the most beautiful countrysideI’d seen.During those flights, we were mostly looking for coca fields anddrug-processing labs under the control of the principal revolutionarygroup in Colombia, the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia(FARC). The FARC had been around for nearly forty years, beginninginitially as the military wing of the Colombian Communist Party. TheirMarxist insurgency had ebbed and flowed over the years in terms ofnumbers and influence, but though their ranks had dwindled of late,their tactics had solidified. Their primary means of waging and fundingtheir “war” was through extortion, kidnapping, and drug running.By gathering intelligence on the FARC’s drug connections, I was doingmy part in the U.S.’s efforts to eradicate the coca crops and drug-traffickinginfrastructure in Colombia. In 2002, 650 metric tons of cocainewere processed in Colombia, and the vast majority of the 494 metrictons of cocaine that made its way into the U.S. came from there. Thatwas down more than 20 percent over 2001 figures, so whatever thejoint effort between the U.S. and Colombia had been doing, it had beena success.I’d only been on the job since November of 2002, and four monthsinto it, I was still very much in a honeymoon period. I was living in anapartment in the vibrant and historic Colombian capital. Though therewere quite a few Americans in the city—embassy workers, contractworkers, and other international personnel—our employer arrangedfor us to live in buildings that were occupied by Colombian nationalsto minimize the danger to us.As Americans, we were always considered a kidnapping risk, and ifanyone suspected that we were doing intelligence work on behalf of theU.S. government, our value as captives would rise. Colombia’s reputationas a place where for-profit kidnapping thrived was well deserved.