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

Dead 289whole new set of victims of the drug trade. I mourned the loss of thosetwenty-seven policemen. I mourned the loss of the kidnap victims whowere frequently slaughtered because their families either weren’t ableto make the payments the FARC demanded or refused to cave in toa terrorist practice. I prayed for their families. I prayed for all of us. Ididn’t pray for the FARC.Our stay in the Chess Camp was marked by one of the problems thatplagued us throughout our captivity—not enough food; only this timeit was for different reasons. According to the Plumber, our supply chainhad been cut off by the Colombian Army. In fact, the Colombians wereso active, between the Front headquarters, supply depots, and our position,that two things happened: Milton went into forced radio silence,and we ran out of food. In our minds, this was a cause for celebration.It meant we were going to go on starvation rations, but it also meantthe FARC were as well. They would be even weaker. The fact that theycouldn’t communicate with their higher-ups only added to our glee.Meanwhile Milton was too stupid to make a sound decision on hisown. We hoped he’d do something that would enhance our chances ofthem being taken down in a firefight with the army. If the noose wastightening and Milton continued to treat his people like dirt, we mightbe able to get some of them to fully commit to getting out there andsurrendering. With them as our guides and offering some protection,we had a better chance of surviving.Nearly three months into our stay at the Chess Camp, food remainedin short supply. Eventually we noticed that Rogelio and Mono had beengone for several days. Rogelio had been particularly cruel and nuttyleading up to his absence. He was in a no-medicine-for-Tom mood andwe were all fighting that battle again. With him gone, the attitude inour camp was definitely better and it seemed the same was true for theother members of the Front as well.Aside from enjoying the relative calm, we didn’t think much ofRogelio’s absence, but four days after our last little confrontation with