Clara Rojas
Clara Leticia Rojas González (born December 20, 1964 in Bogotá , Colombia ) is a Colombian politician and lawyer who was held hostage by FARC rebels from February 2002 to January 2008 .
Life
Clara Rojas is the daughter of Clara González de Rojas. She became a lawyer in 1992 and met Íngrid Betancourt that same year . Together they founded the ecological party Oxígeno Verde (Spanish: Green Oxygen ) in 1997 , and became its vice-president. She describes the fight against war, injustice and corruption in Colombia as her political concern.
In 2002, Clara Rojas became Íngrid Betancourt's campaign manager and ran for Oxígeno Verde as a vice-presidential candidate in the presidential elections .
Kidnapping by the FARC
On February 23, 2002, she and Íngrid Betancourt were kidnapped by members of the left-wing guerrilla organization FARC while campaigning . On May 15, 2002, the FARC released a video showing the two women. In another video dated May 13, 2003, she made an appeal to her family.
Clara Rojas gave birth to her son Emmanuel on April 16, 2004 in captivity. The boy's father is unknown to the public. She declined an offer to be released because she wanted to share the fate of Íngrid Betancourt, who was held hostage.
Liberation attempt
According to a Cuban media report on December 18, 2007, the FARC announced that it would release Clara Rojas, her son Emmanuel and former congresswoman Consuelo González, who was kidnapped on September 10, 2001 . The Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez was used as a mediator between the rebels and the government and had worked out a plan to hand over the three hostages. The operation was code-named Operation Emmanuel .
After the action was delayed several times, it failed on December 31, 2007. The FARC rebels said they could not carry out the transfer of the prisoners because of military operations by the Colombian armed forces in the area designated for the transfer.
The meanwhile released Clara Rojas and also Consuelo González reported that bombing and overflights by Colombian military planes had actually prevented the release announced at the turn of the year. Information published by the Colombian army that a high-ranking FARC commander was killed in combat indirectly confirms the guerrilla's version.
Son in the orphanage
On January 4, 2008, a DNA analysis revealed that the captive-born son of Clara Rojas is in the care of state family welfare. NZZ Online reported that a man from El Retorno in the Guaviare province testified that the FARC had given him the child for care under threat of violence. As the child's health deteriorated, he took it to the hospital, which resulted in the child being taken into state care in 2005 and taken to Bogotá for care. When the man tried to get the child back at the request of the FARC, he aroused suspicions that ultimately led to the identification of the child.
According to a report by teleSUR , the seriously ill child Emmanuel was given to a family in Bogotá for care by the FARC.
release
On January 10, 2008, the FARC announced the coordinates of the meeting point for the handover of the hostages in the jungle. Helicopters with employees of the International Committee of the Red Cross took off into the region. They brought the two women from an Indian village in Guaviare across the border into Venezuela. From there they were flown with a small passenger plane to the capital Caracas, where they met their families again for the first time. Clara Rojas was thus released after 2147 days of imprisonment.
Clara Rojas saw her captive-born son Emmanuel for the first time since 2005 on January 13, 2008.
Publications
- Cautiva , Norma 2009, ISBN 9789584517319 ( I survived for my son , German by Stephan Gebauer, blanvalet 2009, ISBN 3-7645-0337-8 )
swell
- ↑ Venezuela current: Page no longer available , search in web archives: FARC prisoners want to become Venezuelans , January 11, 2008
- ↑ NZZ Online: Exposed lie of the FARC in Colombia , January 7, 2008
- ↑ teleSUR: Emmanuel vuelve a los brazos de su madre ( Memento of March 30, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) , January 14, 2008
- ↑ EuroNews: FARC release two hostages , January 10, 2008
- ↑ Reunited - Rojas meets son. In: http://www.n-tv.de/ . n-tv Nachrichtenfernsehen GmbH, January 14, 2008, accessed on August 25, 2014 .
Web links
Wikinews: Clara Rojas - on the news- "Clara, my colleague and friend" ( Memento from April 21, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) (French)
- FAZ.NET - Hostage Liberation: A plan of great cunning
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Rojas, Clara |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Rojas González, Clara Leticia (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Colombian politician and lawyer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 20, 1964 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Bogotá , Colombia |