Farc hostage ‘escaped in hail of bullets then hid in tree trunk’

Sgt Erazo, held prisoner by for almost 12 years, was the only survivor when the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) ordered the execution of captives as soldiers approached their hide-out during a weekend operation.

Three captors pursued Sgt Erazo, shooting and grazing him as he fled into the undergrowth.

“I heard the shots about 20, 30 metres from me and I thought, ‘What’s this, brother?’” he told local radio. “I felt the impact on my face and neck, the shots were at me, the only thing I could do was run.”

Four fellow captives were not so lucky. In the southern jungles of Caqueta, their bodies were found alongside their metal chains, three with bullets in their heads and a fourth shot in the back.

The members of Colombia’s armed forces had been held hostage by the drug-funded group for up to 14 years, used as bargaining chips against the government.

The execution as troops closed in on the Farc hide-out was the most violent act by the rebels since special forces killed their leader, Alfonso Cano, earlier this month.

Saturday’s mission began 45 days earlier after a tip that Farc captives were being held in the area. The four victims were shot as the military engaged rebels in a gun battle.

The government said yesterday troops had been attempting to locate the captives, not launch a rescue. “They were tortured by more than a decade of captivity and then murdered,” president Juan Manuel Santos said. “It’s an atrocious crime.”

Sgt Erazo eventually hid in a tree trunk, listening as the soldiers fought his captors. He crawled out when he heard chain-saws clearing trees for helicopters to land.

Three of his companions had been pushed face down and shot in the back of the head, a captured rebel said. The other was shot twice in the back as he tried to escape.

The Farc, which still holds 11 military captives, had marched them through the jungle for weeks, Sgt Erazo said.

“Sometimes they were awful, at other times they were in a good mood and freed us from the chains. Sometimes we were chained from six at night until six in the morning,” he said.

The killings may derail any behind-the-scenes attempts to bring the Farc to the negotiating table. Mr Santos said last week Colombia was nearing the final phase of nearly five decades of war and that he would be willing to talk peace if the Farc were serious and put down their weapons. The rebels – considered a terrorist group by the United States and Europe – refused.

While ten years of military strikes have severely weakened the Farc – attracting billions of dollars of investment to the oil and mining industries – the fight against the Marxist group and other narco-crime gangs strips as much as 1 per cent from Colombia’s economy each year.

The Farc has battled about a dozen administrations since first appearing in 1964, when its founder, Manuel Marulanda, and 48 rebels fought off thousands of troops in jungle hide-outs.

A string of defeats began in 2008 when a cross-border military raid into Ecuador killed Raul Reyes, its second in command. Marulanda died of a heart attack weeks later, to be succeeded by Cano, who was killed this month. Cano’s replacement, Timoleon Jimenez, has vowed to fight on.