COLOMBIA:TWO DAYS after the daring jungle mission that rescued the world's most famous hostage, Ingrid Betancourt, and 14 other captives, including three American defence contractors, questions are being asked about the official version of the rescue.
Although the government and military have taken full credit for the raid, questions have been raised about the extent of the US government's involvement. Government critics say the timing of Wednesday's rescue was suspiciously convenient, with President Álvaro Uribe, a staunch ally of President George Bush's administration, involved in a bribery scandal, and US presidential candidate John McCain leaving Colombia just hours before the raid.
Colombia has received more than $5 billion in military aid since 2000. The use of recently delivered state-of-the-art satellite technology is thought to have been used in the operation. Israel was also involved in the planning of the mission, and just last week a former general in the Israeli military, Israel Ziv, returned from Colombia. He acknowledged his country's co-operation in an interview with Haaretz newspaper, but said "there was no need to exaggerate" Israel's involvement.
Colombians are also asking: what now for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc), the continent's oldest insurgency, and what can be done to bring about a peaceful solution to the conflict that has ravaged the Andean nation for almost five decades.
Former president Andrés Pastrana said: "I hope the Farc understand that now they have to negotiate. Alfonso Cano [its supreme commander] should be thinking that his only option left is to talk." Mr Pastrana's administration held failed peace talks with the Farc from 1998 to 2002.
Carlos Lozano, editor of the weekly communist newspaper Voz, and who has been a key figure in previous contacts with Colombia's guerrilla groups, agreed, saying "the only path left is a negotiated solution . . . they [the Farc] now have to sit down at the table." In recent months, the Colombian communist party has distanced itself from Farc's belligerent stance and has encouraged talks.
Writing in the weekly news magazine Cambio, former government peace commissioner Carlos Jaramillo claims it is "unquestionable that the Farc now have to move into a different phase". Shattering setbacks in recent months for the guerrilla organisation - including the deaths of three members of its ruling secretariat and the infiltration of its top echelons by government spies - means it will have to rethink its strategies.
Human rights organisations and news media outlets in Colombia have announced they will support a massive march on July 20th - Colombian Independence Day - to demand the release of Farc's remaining hostages. The march is expected to match the hundreds of thousands of people who turned out in February to support the kidnap victims. Ingrid Betancourt has called for a "league of nations" to fight against kidnapping and urged Presidents Chávez of Venezuela, Correa of Ecuador and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner of Argentina "to help democracy in Colombia".