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

Choices and Challenges17Sonia—searched the plane, tossing stuff out of it and onto the ground.I could also see Marc standing with Tommy J and Sergeant Cruz. Theystarted to move Marc away from Tommy J and Cruz and down the hilltoward us. I could tell that Marc didn’t want to go, but the FARC guardon him was nudging him with his weapon. At one point Marc stoppedand turned back, and I followed his gaze up the slope. There, at the topof the hill, stood Tommy J—worn out and injured. He limped over toSergeant Cruz and put his arm around Cruz’s shoulders.That was the last we saw of them.The FARC led Tom and me down the hill a little bit farther. Thegoing wasn’t any easier, but we managed to make it another four hundredyards or so to a small building made of rough-hewn lumber witha corrugated tin roof. Tom and I stood there for a few minutes andthen Marc joined us. A young female guerrilla—she couldn’t have beenmore than eighteen—brought out a large aluminum ola, or pot. In itwas water with a few lemon seeds floating in it. She handed each of usa small cup of the liquid. I was surprised at how sweet it tasted. FARClemonade was about as sugary as any sweet tea I’d had at home. Ilooked over the rim of my cup and all I could see was dark eyes framedby mustaches and black hair. I was struck by the odd assortment of hatsthey wore and the half-ass assortment of ways they wore them. Whatkind of terrorist organization was this?We descended more of the slope, and after we’d gone several stepswe stopped. The next thing I knew, the FARC were pawing me, searchingfor any weapons and indicating that we needed to strip down. Theyspread out a sheet, and Tom, Marc, and I did as we were told. Prettysoon we were in our underwear. I could barely contain my anger at thehypocrisy the FARC then demonstrated when one of the “idealistic”communists took the money out of my wallet and put it in his pocket.Here was this supposed guerrilla organization that was founded onMarxist principles, and yet the second they come into contact with privateproperty, they jumped to take it for themselves. Each according to