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Two top police officials rescued after 12 years in FARC captivity
The Colombian Army rescued police general Luis Mendieta and police colonel Enrique Murillo, who were kidnapped by leftist rebels 12 years ago, President Alvaro Uribe announced Sunday.It was Mendieta's birthday Sunday. He turned 51. Mendieta and Murillo were taken hostage by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in 1998. The country was especially moved by the plight of Mendieta, and that of other FARC hostages, when a letter from him was made public in early 2008. "I had to drag myself to the bathroom through the mud just with the help of my arms because I could not get up," Mendieta wrote in a graphic letter to his family on a dirty piece of paper. His legs had given up on him after months of forced marches and illnesses. Other hostages spoke of parasite infections, chronic illnesses, hunger, thirst and especially despair. "(The worst is) the mental agony, the bad guy's evil and the good guy's indifference, as if we were worth nothing, as if we did not exist," Mendieta wrote. Posted by: Fred 2010-06-14 |
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