Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos speaks, next to Defense Minister Juan Carlos Pinzon, left, during an event to launch a Christmas security plan in Bogota, Colombia, Monday, Dec. 1, 2014. A day after leftist rebels freed a top Colombian general, President Juan Manuel Santos is pressing his military to explain to the strange circumstances that led to his surprise capture two weeks ago. AP
BOGOTA, Colombia — A day after leftist rebels freed a top Colombian general whose capture nearly sabotaged peace talks, attention is turning to the unexplained circumstances that led to his shock capture.
President Juan Manuel Santos on Monday urged his military to immediately clarify to the nation why one of its best-trained soldiers apparently violated military protocol and ventured up a rebel-dominated river in western Colombia dressed as a civilian with two companions but without his normal security detail.
Prosecutors and lawmakers are also lining up to question Gen. Ruben Alzate, the highest-ranking office ever seized by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia in 50 years of fighting.
Santos on Monday dispatched to Cuba his peace negotiators to restart talks with the FARC that he suspended two weeks ago in response to Alzate’s capture.
Alzate hasn’t been seen or heard from since his release Sunday except for in videos and photos, one of which show the counterinsurgent expert in a plaid shirt and sweatpants shaking the hands of his captors before boarding a helicopter piloted by the international Red Cross.
The images, released by the FARC to Venezuelan network Telesur, are bound to stir resentment in Colombia’s military, many of whose members are skeptical of Santos’ peace efforts.
While the capture of Alzate appears to have been accidental, the crisis it triggered exposed one of the peace process’ biggest challenges: the lack of a bilateral ceasefire.
Santos, pushed by the military and conservative critics, has long rejected such an option for fear it would give the rebels use an opportunity to regroup after a decade of heavy battlefield losses.
The FARC is pushing the president to show greater flexibility. The rebel group considers military personnel prisoners of war and has expressed dismay that the government ignored its own commitment to not allow battlefield dynamics detain progress at the negotiating table.
Analysts say the rebels’ decision to quickly handover the general also strengthens their position.