Escape from the FARC on Discovery
An Account of Jhon Pinchao's Dramatic Flight from Colombian Rebels
Oct 22, 2008
In 1998 the FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia) launched their most ambitious and daring attack, the siege of Mitu, the capital city of the southeastern department of Vaupes. It was the first and only occasion that this rebel group have successfully taken a provincial capital.
The Story
After a battle that raged for several days the left wing guerrillas – who have been involved in a 5 decade conflict with the Colombian state - were able to take the town and subsequently took a large number of the surviving police and military captive. Jhon Pinchao was amongst this group of captives who were trussed up by the neck and then forced to march for days deep through the impenetrable jungles of Vaupes to what amounted to a prison camp and FARC rebel base.
The Discovery documentary
Using actual footage of the FARC attack on Mitu and splicing back during the documentary from interviews with Jhon Pinchao to reenactments of his 17 day escape and scenes recreated of life in the jungle in captivity the Discovery Channel documentary was reasonably effective in its depiction of the events detailed.
But perhaps it was most effective in the snippets of information that the Colombian Government must have deemed appropriate to release into the public arena. The savagery of the attacking force was there for all to see as Pinchao recounted how comrades injured in the attack were executed as they could not conceivably survive the forced march into the jungle.
We were shown how the very same children who would hang around Police station where Pinchao was posted were actually child soldiers for the FARC feeding information back to senior members.
Further atrocities were depicted, not least the treatment of the hostages, routinely being chained to another captive by the neck, suffering multiple bouts of malaria and expected to drink only river water – this of course leading to further illnesses including gastritis, chronic diarrhea amongst others.
Jhon Pinchao’s Escape
According to Pinchao it was fellow hostage Ingrid Betancourt who encouraged him to attempt an escape, albeit not directly, but through her revelation that she had attempted to escape on some four occasions.
Over a period of time up to as long as a year, Pinchao was able to break one of the links in the chain around his neck and make off into the jungle, finding what he believed to be a river known to him he plunged in despite not knowing how to swim. He was mistaken about the identity of the river and was actually much closer to Brazil and was floating in a completely different river.
It was during his days on the run, suffering hypothermia due to exposure to jungle downpours and severe malnutrition that he overheard FARC guerrillas on an outboard motorboat discussing the search. It was revealed through their banter that it was routine for the guerrilla to search the jungle for 5 days and then beyond this their efforts would be focused about reachable towns.
Date of Freedom
On April 27 2007 he made his escape.
The Result
With Jhon Pinchao’s daring and successful escape, after a reasonable period of recuperation, he underwent some serious debriefing, providing everything he knew about the guerrilla, their camps and their habits. Of course the information he was able to furnish the Government and the military played a vital role in the formation and execution of Operation Jaque – the plan hatched to liberate Ingrid Betancourt, the three American contractors and the remaining hostages from the fall of Mitu.
