ninme

Tim Blair - CLOWNS TO THE RESCUE

An ingenious plan fools leftist rebels holding Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt and three U.S. military contractors captive:

The hostages, who had been divided in three groups, were taken to a rendezvous where two disguised helicopters piloted by Colombian military agents were waiting …

The pilots, [Betancourt] said, were posing as members of a relief organization, but “they were dressed like clowns,” wearing Che Guevara shirts, so she assumed they were rebels.

As one would.

Skipping a few updates…

UPDATE II. “There’s a use for everything,” writes Damian Penny. “That most repulsive of fashion accessories, the Che Guevara T-shirt, played a key role in rescuing hostages held by FARC.”

UPDATE III. Further comment from Betancourt:

The men in the helicopters looked like guerrillas, Betancourt later said, describing details of the rescue at the military airport.

“Absolutely surreal,” she said, noting that some of the men who got off the helicopter wore T-shirts emblazoned with the iconic image of the Argentine revolutionary Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara. “I thought this was the FARC,” she said.

“Except they weren’t,” writes Jimmie. “They were only dressed like the brutal fascists. Which should make you wonder the next time you see some young person walking down the street in their Che t-shirt. Are they wearing it out of ignorance or solidarity? I suggest that the Colombians keep those shirts, though. You never know when they might want to get into a MoveOn rally or the Democratic National Convention without undue hassle.”

Awesome.

The Times - Who dares wins: Colombia and the hostage rescue
Colombia’s bold move deals a body blow to Marxist insurgents

Even President Chávez of Venezuela, whose hostility to Mr Uribe is matched only by his despicable public and covert support for Farc terrorists, was forced to acknowledge the mood in Latin America and “join the jubilation” as well as calling for the release of the remaining 700 captives. If even Mr Chávez has had to recognise that the insurgency has no legitimacy, popular support or prospect of success, the turnaround in Colombia over the past four years has indeed been spectacular.

Mr Uribe came to office with a reputation as a hardline rightwinger, determined to eschew the negotiating tactics of his predecessor and deal with Colombia’s intractable problems of narco-terrorism through tough military confrontation. He has been helped by unstinting support from the Bush Administration, which saw clearly the threat that Colombia’s terrorists and its drugs posed to the US and to all Latin America. The Oxford and Harvard-educated President, however, has proved himself far more adroit than the caricature. He has broken the power of the right-wing paramilitaries, once seen as the only force able to oppose the Marxists, while still managing to push the rebels back from the cities, break Farc’s hold over the poor and the landless and encourage defections from its 9,000-strong guerrilla army, while targeting the senior commanders and those controlling the narcotics trade.

As a result, a country that only four years ago was a byword for a narco-state, shunned by tourists and synonymous with corruption, is rediscovering its pride, democracy and self-confidence. It is now fairly safe to walk the streets. Tourists and even a US presidential candidate have returned. The bureaucracy is working. Farc still controls a third of the countryside and can count on huge illegal profits from drug smuggling, kidnapping and extortion. But it no longer commands any sympathy, even among the have-nots. And Mr Uribe’s economic competence has encouraged growth rates to rise from a steady 5.5 per cent since 2003 to 7.5 per cent last year - testimony to better security and growing foreign investment.

There is a way to go before Colombia can boast the normality enjoyed by its neighbours. But yesterday’s spectacular rescue, coming after earlier victories against the Farc leadership, signals the beginning of the end for one of Latin America’s bloodiest and nastiest rebel groups. Mr Uribe has earned the world’s respect.

Hurrah! Tonight we party in Bogatà!

So, I’m one of those people that wants to go everywhere. If I’m making a list in my head of places I’d like to travel to, it quickly snowballs. Except Spain. I don’t have much desire to go to Spain. And South America. But even as I think, “I don’t have much interest in going to South America” I realize that that’s because the common image of South American travel is trampling over some World Heritage Site (and running through untold amounts of jet fuel to get there, btw) or standing on some mountain and saying “I’m standing on a mountain in South America this time!” or “canoeing through the Patagonia” or whatever it is people do down there.

Or else, worse, “learning about the beautiful and sustainable native cultural traditions,” which usually means buying a poncho and smoking a lot of weed.

So it’s kind of obvious why those particular travel magazines have never appealed to me. But the thing is, the parts of South America that are actually worth looking at (or worth looking at but without destroying them at the same time) (and you know, they do have these things called “museums” down there so you don’t actually have to take the bus up the Hiram Bingham Hwy to learn something about Mayan Civilization) are the cities. I mean, everybody falls all over themselves at the Guggenheim in New York, “What an amazing example of mid-century modern architecture!” “It’s so old!” but Lima was founded in the 1500s, which makes it a medieval city. Bogotà was founded in 1538. Beunos Aires in 1536. Which is older than a lot of places on the European tourist path. And then there’s the food. And how on earth can you be a gastro-tourist on what amounts to a glorified camping trip?