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

Politics and Pawns391guerrillas had been killed and that among them was Raúl Reyes, thefirst of the secretariado to be killed in battle since the FARC was founded.Keith, Tom, and I rejoiced at this news. Reyes was a vital component ofthe FARC’s engine. Rumor had it that Marulanda was ill and about tostep down as the FARC’s commander in chief. Reyes was next in line.If nothing else, his death would send shock waves through the FARC.While this was a positive development, it could also be a bad deal forus—especially because of how it happened. In subsequent days, theradio had more reports about Reyes’s death and the controversy thatensued. Reyes and his group had penetrated the Ecuadoran border andhad been killed there. Some in Colombia and in Ecuador were upsetwith the military’s crossing the border. After a day or two of angry accusationsand denials, Uribe explained that his military had launched arocket attack from Colombia. Only after they believed that they had hittheir intended target did they cross the border into Ecuador—with Ecuadoranpresident Rafael Correa’s permission. Along with the bodies,they also recovered Reyes’s laptops, and a series of allegations aboutthe damning evidence the laptops contained began to circulate, includingverification of Chávez’s longtime collusion with the FARC. If thiswas true, it could have big implications for us, but all we could do waswonder how it would affect negotiations for our release.Whether it was because of Reyes’s death, Lucho’s release, or someother force we were unaware of, in the days after Lucho’s departure, wenoticed a lot more surveillance aircraft activity. We had been travelingeither by boat or by marching along the river. Late one afternoon, deepinto a nasty slog a few hundred yards off the river itself, Keith stoppedand cocked his ear like a bird dog.“Hear that?”I strained my ear and caught something faint; the sound waves vibratedthe bones in my chest. “I got something but I don’t know what.”“Blackhawks. I’m sure of it.” Keith looked like he did the first timehe’d received a radio message from his family. “If we spot them and