Valle del Cauca Deputies hostage crisis

[1] After a series of "proof of life" videos, on June 28, 2007 the FARC suddenly reported the death of 11 of the 12 kidnapped provincial deputies from Valle del Cauca Department.

The efforts of the Red Cross recovery team were delayed due to difficult weather and terrain conditions upon arriving to the pick up area on September 5, 2007.

The Colombian newspaper El Espectador speculated that the FARC also intended to give up the body of an alleged mercenary of the "unidentified military group" to prove their claims about an attack by such forces.

The FARC ordered the 12 deputies out of the building and board the bus, while other guerrillas stabbed with knives members of the Colombian National Police who noted the false operation.

[7] According to email conversations between guerrillas, found on computers of deceased FARC-commander Raúl Reyes and quoted by several Colombian media, the murder of eleven of the abductees was "a mistake".

According to one e-mail, the guards of the hostages executed the deputies when they mistook approaching fellow FARC-rebels for rebels of the National Liberation Army (ELN).

[9] Colombian television station RCN reported on May 21, 2008, the whole kidnapping operation was masterminded and financed by drug trafficker Wilson Figueroa Ordóñez, alias 'W'.