The drama of the Moncayo has been the drama of entire Colombia, and even has penetrated the borders.

The teacher Gustavo Moncayo has turned round him to the world asking for help to achieve that his son, the end Pablo Emilio Moncayo, is liberated by the Colombian guerrillas of the FARC, which has supported it in captivity for 12 years. It has met presidents, has walked along the whole Colombia, one spent all his savings, it has done hunger strike and even one has hung by a cross. A few days ago, across a video delivered by the FARC to the controversial leftist senator Piety Cordova, came to him signs from that perhaps his entreaties begin to yield fruits.

In the first instance, it was difficult to the teacher Moncayo to realize that what it saw there were proofs that his son in effect was alive. And the fact is that the man who was speaking in a video begging his President Álvaro Uribe who was accepting the conditions imposed by the guerrillas to achieve his liberation, there was not seeming to be the same youngster who was started of his hearth at the age of 19 of age. “I was not imagining that the person that they were showing on the screen was Pablo Emilio, and only when he begins doing the presentation it is when I realize that it is a question of my son”, he said.

The terrorist group of the FARC had informed that it does a time, across a bulletin, which he would have decided to liberate unilaterally to the end Moncayo. According to them, they were doing it thanks to the request of senator Córdoba, of the group “Colombians and Colombians for the Peace”, of the presidents Rafael Correa and Hugo Chávez, and the father of the young soldier.

The above mentioned liberation would include also the partner of captivity of Moncayo, José Daniel Calvo. But the months they happened and the announced liberation did not materialize since the government and the guerrillas were not agreeing in the conditions. Between them, that senator Córdoba was accepted like mediating.

The government pushed back at first that the polemic liberal leader was acting as an ombudswoman, with the arguments that it was not considering to be suitable that the return of the kidnapped one was turning into spectacle mediático, and that the military forces would continue in his intention of liberating him and all the kidnapped ones. Nevertheless, before the pressures, the president Uribe finally yielded, accepted Cordova and a mediating commission integrated.

The drama of the Moncayo has been the drama of entire Colombia, and even has penetrated the borders. The military man has turned into symbol of the struggle against this vile crime that has destroyed families in the entire world. According to the Colombian catholic church – that along with the Red Cross is mediating between the FARC and the government for the liberation of the kidnapped ones - in the country there are more than 700 persons kidnapped by diverse groups, but only 24 of them are exchangeable for cash for imprisoned guerrillas. Between this 24 is the end Moncayo.

The cameras are ready to register the moment of the reunion of the end Moncayo with theirs. It will not be the first one and let's wait that neither the last one. The guerrillas of the FARC liberate the one who is convenient for him and when it they is beneficial. And when it happens, there are always those who put themselves in tail to assume the achievement to gain political points. But only those who have lived in proper meat through the pain of having a kidnapped dear being and the powerlessness of not being able to achieve his liberation, will be able to value the heroic and challenging acts of the teacher Moncayo to end with the Calvary of his family.

(c) 2009 by Maria Helen Salinas.