Colombian rebels handed over a 23-year-old soldier to the International Red Cross on Sunday in their first release of a captive in more than a year. The insurgents are promising to soon free a second soldier they’ve held for far longer.
Private Josue Calvo had been held since he was wounded and captured last April. He walked out of a loaned Brazilian helicopter emblazoned with the Red Cross logo and into the long embrace of his father and sister after being picked up in the jungle and flown to this provincial capital at the eastern foot of the Andes.
“Joy came home again,” his father, Luis Alberto Calvo, said.
PHOTO: EPA
Calvo is the first of two soldiers the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), says it is freeing this week in what the insurgents call their last goodwill unilateral release.
The other is Sergeant Pablo Emilio Moncayo, who has been held for more than 12 of his 32 years, and whose father gained fame for walking halfway across Colombia to press for his release.
Although the rebels had reported him recovering from leg wounds and not ambulatory, Calvo did not use the wheelchair that awaited him. He walked on his own, with the aid of a staff. But he did not speak — only giving a thumbs up — at a news conference at which his father explained that Calvo’s mother had abandoned the family when Josue was a boy.
Afterward, the soldier and his family were flown to Bogota, where Calvo was treated at the Military Hospital for dehydration and was in stable condition, its director said in a statement.
Colonel Nora Ines Rodriguez said Calvo suffered three gunshot wounds a year ago in his right leg that have healed — and a fourth that damaged the top of his left knee.
Senator Piedad Cordoba, who led the rescue mission, said Calvo was emotional and lightheaded during the flight from the village of Santa Lucia, where rebels handed the young soldier over.
“YES, PEACE IS POSSIBLE, IT’S IRREVERSIBLE,” Cordoba said in the play-by-play of the release that she has been running on her Twitter feed.
The FARC says it will now demand a swap of jailed rebels in exchange for the 20 police and soldiers it still holds, most for more than a decade.
Speaking in the town of Arauca, Colombian President Alvaro Uribes welcomed Calvo’s release and said he spoke with the soldier by telephone.
He said he does not object to prisoner exchanges as long as they don not effectively return “criminals to the FARC.”
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number