Operation Emmanuel

Venezuelan aircraft were flown to an airport in the Colombian town of Villavicencio, were resupplied, and from there flew to the secret rescue point set up by the FARC.

[1][2] On December 26, 2007, through the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Colombian government approved the mission, only requesting that the aircraft used for the operations were labelled with Red Cross insignias.

Chávez personally inspected the two helicopters in Santo Domingo before departing along with former president of Argentina Néstor Kirchner, who was also invited to supervise the operations.

[citation needed] Colombia's High Commissioner for Peace, Luis Carlos Restrepo Ramírez, was scheduled to receive the IRC delegates and the Vice Chancellor for Latin America and the Caribbean, Rodolfo Sanz [es], in Villavicencio to coordinate the rescue operation.

[citation needed] At the end of the first phase Colombian President Alvaro Uribe said: “[I'm] thinking about the freedom of Emmanuel, the child who was conceived by a kidnapped mother, who has been raised kidnapped, a condition worse than the conditions seen in enslaved societies […]”[4] On December 31, Hugo Chávez read a letter from FARC wherein the group claimed that the hostage release had been delayed because of Colombian military operations.

[6] On January 4, the FARC released a communique in which they admitted that Emmanuel had been taken to Bogotá and "left in the care of honest persons" for safety reasons, until a humanitarian exchange could take place.

[citation needed] The suspended Operation Emmanuel resumed and, on January 10, 2008, a humanitarian commission, headed by the International Committee of the Red Cross, flew in two Venezuelan helicopters to a location in Colombia that FARC had designated the previous day.