Drugs & US Law Enforcement (2006-2017)

[Ron Humphrey]

Unfortunately, looks like there's a downside to the rescue:
Colombian military used Red Cross emblem in rescue

And it is a valid one, it brings to mind some questions .

1- Have the FARC been respectful of Red Cross immunity in the past?
(do they respect them and treat them as nuetral)

2- How do we know this is that symbol, its is during the rescue vs recovery, it is an actual use for deception,etc?

3- This isn't just spin trying to give a now probably very paranoid organization an excuse to trust noone / possibly take some softer targets hostage?

[Rex Brynen]

2- How do we know this is that symbol, its is during the rescue vs recovery, it is an actual use for deception,etc?

At this point, it would appear from the footage that someone from the Columbian military was wearing an ICRC bib during the actual deception/rescue.

If so, this is a very large no-no (and a violation of international humanitarian law), regardless of whether the FARC respects the red cross itself.

[wm]

I think it is a pretty excessive leap of faith that some guy was wearing ICRC markings during the rescue attempt from the minimal evidence I saw displayed at the link. (F6 source and content eval from where I sit.) BTW, I thought the rescue operation was based on a deception--the rescuers were passing themselves off as FARC insurgents, come to move the captives to another location. So, if an ICRC marking was worn, perhaps that is a tactic used by FARC and was used by the rescuers to improve their credability as bad guys rather than to pass themselves off as ICRC personnel.

[Rex Brynen]

I think it is a pretty excessive leap of faith that some guy was wearing ICRC markings during the rescue attempt from the minimal evidence I saw displayed at the link.

The Columbians have now acknowledged that one of the rescue team wore ICRC insignia, apparently without/against orders (although I suspect this mistake was more of the "none of us really care" variety). According to published reports, the deception involved a fictitious humanitarian NGO facilitating the hostage transfer.

Uribe has apologized to ICRC for the incident.