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

Running on Empty 307wanted to pick up local Colombian AM stations. He handed Keith theradio, said, “Remember me,” and walked away.The Plumber never did anything without a reason. A couple of yearsinto our captivity, I’d had a conversation with him in which he said thatif we were ever able to get out of there, and if he was able to get out ofthe FARC (he could lose a foot to a land mine or something), he wantedto know how he could connect with us again. I told him that the onlyway he could contact me was through my e-mail address. I told himhe could go into Villavicencio and find an Internet café. I gave him asmuch information as I could, knowing full well that the odds of any ofthis happening were pretty remote.I saw the Plumber for what he was—a schemer. If I had any respectat all for him, it was because he seemed the closest of the FARC to reallyunderstanding the situation he was in. He didn’t like prisoner duty,but he knew that it was safer than other units. The likelihood of himbeing killed while with us was lower than it was out in the field takingmilitary action or protecting coke labs. He’d seen his best friend killedin action and that dose of reality got to him. The Plumber understoodrisks, and just as he would go only so far to help us, he was going to goonly so far to put his own life in jeopardy.When we asked him what he thought about his future, he saidsomething very telling. In a lot of ways, he said, things were worse forhim than they were for the others. He understood that by joining theFARC, he had essentially given his life away. Guerrillas got killed andthe FARC just recruited more kids to replace them. Sooner or later itwould be his turn. That he gave Keith the radio let us know that he stillheld out some hope that his life might play out differently. We figuredit was his way of saying, “If you ever get out of there, keep me in mindand get me to the States somehow.”We didn’t have long to wait to see what was next. Some new FARCfaces had joined our temporary camp, and when we got the order topack up, we were the only ones who did so. All of the FARC under