Law of the Jungle: The Hunt for Colombian Guerrillas, American Hostages, and Buried Treasure
In July 2008, Colombia&#x2019;s army foisted a brilliant ruse upon its Marxist enemy, the FARC. Masquerading as humanitarian workers, soldiers tricked the FARC into handing over its most valuable hostages: three American military contractors whose plane had crashed into the jungle (FARC murdered their two comrades on the spot); Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt; and several Colombian police and military personnel. Journalist Otis&#x2019; intensive depiction of that operation culminates his chronicle of how the victims fell into the clutches of the FARC, the ordeal of captivity, and their relatives&#x2019; pressure to obtain their release. Otis frames such specifics with the decades-long rebellion by the FARC and its resorting to extortion, drug trafficking, and kidnapping to finance itself. A Colombian army unit that discovered a stash of FARC cash while searching for the hostages is a story told in parallel to the prisoners&#x2019; narratives of abusive treatment. With its Conradian atmosphere of jungle-induced madness and an immediacy stemming from interviews with many of the participants, this will engage all who follow Colombian politics. --Gilbert Taylor