FARC loses its crown jewels

Today, Colombia’s army rescued 15 hostages held for years by FARC. The rescued included Ms. Ingrid Betancourt, held since 2002; three American contractors held since 2003; and Colombian soldiers and police officers held for political or financial ransom. With this blow, FARC has now lost its crown jewels, its most valuable leverage against the Colombian government. These particular hostages were also FARC’s best assets in its dealing with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and with governments in Europe.

According to this report of the rescue operation, Colombian military intelligence officers infiltrated the FARC organization and lured the FARC hostage-holding unit into a bloodless ambush organized by Colombian army commandos. The U.S. government provided signal intelligence and helicopter support to the effort.

This incident is another indication of FARC’s rapid decay. FARC may be so strained for personnel that it can no longer vet its recruits properly, one more sign of FARC’s disintegrating internal security. One would also think that a hostage-taking operation like FARC would disperse its most valuable hostages among many locations. But it could only take this sensible security step if it had enough trained and reliable manpower to provide the required level of security and support at multiple locations. The fact that it didn’t is another indication of FARC’s crumbling status.

In the months ahead, we should expect FARC to attempt to regain its leverage by attempting one or more kidnapping operations against high-value targets inside Colombia’s cities. It remains to be seen whether it has the capacity for such operations. In the meantime, FARC’s foot-soldiers and commanders might be wondering how long the organization has left.