South America
Kidnapped Colombian lawmaker escapes FARC rebels
By Patrick Markey
Oct 26, 2008, 20:57

BOGOTA (Reuters) - A Colombian lawmaker kidnapped more than eight years ago by FARC guerrillas escaped through the jungles with one of his captors in another blow to Latin America's oldest insurgency, authorities said on Sunday.

Wearing a tattered black T-shirt and sporting a tangled gray beard, former lawmaker Oscar Lizcano and the rebel boss traveled for three days before reaching an army post where the guerrilla surrendered.

"Thanks to the army post we found after that march through the harsh jungle, falling down with my legs swollen," Lizcano told reporters, slumped exhausted in a chair, his voice weak after he was forbidden to talk for so long by his captors.

His escape came after French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt, three Americans and a group of other hostages were rescued in a surprise military operation in July after years in jungle camps.

Authorities had initially said the army rescued Lizcano.

His escape underscores the heavy military pressure faced by the FARC and how far rebel discipline has been undermined by informants and improved intelligence under President Alvaro Uribe, who has received billions of dollars in U.S. aid.

Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos said a rebel from the group holding Lizcano escaped in early October and provided details about his camp. Troops and police began a rescue operation over the weekend, he said.

"Thank God for this nightmare coming to an end," the rescued politician's wife Martha de Lizcano said. "It has been eight years of so much suffering."

REWARDS

Colombia has received more than $5 billion in U.S. aid to battle the FARC and the drug trade that helps fuel its campaign. Cities and highways are safer, but thousands of people still are displaced each year by violence in rural areas where rebels still have a presence.

The FARC, or Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, was once a powerful rebel army that controlled large areas of the country. The rebel group lost three leaders this year and hundreds of fighters have deserted.

Uribe has offered rewards to guerrillas who surrendered with captives.

Lizcano, snatched in 2000 and reportedly in very poor health, was the FARC's longest-held politician. Guerrillas still are still holding scores of kidnap victims for political leverage and ransom.

The bespectacled lawmaker was last seen in a rebel-made video in April surrounded by uniformed guerrillas and reading from a statement pleading with the government not to try a military rescue that would endanger lives of hostages.

Betancourt, a former presidential candidate, and the three U.S. contract workers were rescued when their guerrilla captors were tricked into handing them over to intelligence officers posing as members of a humanitarian mission.

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