After being held hostage for 33 days by the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC), Romeo Langlois was handed to a humanitarian mission on Wednesday afternoon in the department of Caquetá. The mission was composed of delegates from the International Committee of the Red Cross, a representative of the French government and members of the organization Colombianos y Colombianas por la Paz.
The capture of Langlois came just two months after the FARC’s February 26 statement in which the guerrilla group declared it would no longer engage in kidnapping as a source of revenue, the first time an announcement of this kind had been made by the FARC. AQ blogger Jenny Manrique notes that the kidnapping “was an example of the power that the FARC maintains in one of its strongholds in the south.”
Langlois, 35, has lived in Colombia for 12 years covering the armed conflict. For him, the situation does not end there. “The [Colombian] Government advertised the idea that the conflict was over, and that is not true,” he stated during the ceremony that followed his release. Langlois was to meet with French government representatives in Florence, Colombia.
