Chameleon Operation (in Spanish, Operación Camaleón) is a military operation by the National Army of Colombia that took place on June 13 and 14, 2010, with the aim of freeing four hostages held by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrilla group. The hostages included three members of the Colombian National Police (General Luis Herlindo Mendieta and Colonels Enrique Murillo and William Donato Gómez) and Sergeant Arbey Delgado from the national army. The operation took place in the municipality of El Retorno, in a jungle area where the Inírida river rises in the department of Guaviare, 28 kilometers from the site of Operation Jaque, which led to the release of 15 hostages in 2008.
This mission was made possible thanks to several months of analysis by military intelligence and information gathered by army and police agents who infiltrated the FARC, as well as during the capture of guerrilla Marcos Parrilla. Parrilla provided the coordinates of the area where the hostages were being held. At 5:30 p.m. on June 10, President Álvaro Uribe gave the go-ahead to the commander of the military forces, General Freddy Padilla de León, for the deployment of troops and the launch of Operation Chameleon. The offensive began on June 13 and led to the release of four hostages held for almost twelve years. The guerrillas' point of view on these events is unknown.
Following the success of the operation, the army commander, Oscar González, declared that the informers who had made the rescue possible had received a reward of 2.5 billion pesos. For the Colombian political opposition, Operation Chameleon was set up to influence the run-off presidential election, a claim denied by Álvaro Uribe.
Context
The Chameleon Operation was one of many operations carried out against FARC during the Colombian civil war. This civil war had its origins following the assassination of the liberal leader Jorge Eliécer Gaitán on April 9, 1948, which was followed by a day of demonstrations, riots, and violent repression known as the "Bogotazo". The Bogotazo was the first episode of La Violencia,Nathaniel Weyl, L'étoile rouge sur Cuba: L'assaut russe sur l'hémisphère occidental, Devin-Adair, 1960, 222 p. (), p. 4-21 a period of great violence between conservatives and liberals that facilitated the emergence of two Marxist guerrilla groups: the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN)."Jorge Eliécer Gaitán (1898-1948)" archive, United fruit historical society, 2001 (accessed November 22nd, 2012)
Álvaro Uribe Vélez, first elected on May 26, 2002, and re-elected on May 28, 2006,"En Colombie, le président Uribe a été réélu dès le premier tour", Le Monde, May 29th, 2006 (read online archive) took over the reins of the Colombian presidency after eight years of intense FARC activity, which included several major victories:Eduardo Mackenzie, Les FARC ou l'échec d'un communisme de combat: Colombie 1925-2005, Éditions Publibook, 2005, 593 p. (), p. 517-540 the attacks on Las Delicias in 1996, El Billar, Miraflores and Mitú in 1998. During the 2002 presidential campaign, Uribe declared, "We have the right to live in a country at peace, and the obligation to help achieve it", and promised that he would be "Colombia's first soldier". Once in power, he pursued an aggressive policy towards the guerrillas, dubbed "democratic security", with the aim of forcing them to negotiate by inflicting military losses.Nathalie Duclos, L'adieu aux armes? Parcours d'anciens combattants, KARTHALA Editions, 2010, 426 p. (), pp. 143-174. To achieve this, he reinforced the army's human and material resources. Accepting to negotiate only with guerrillas who agreed to declare a ceasefire, Uribe achieved a number of successes: the demobilization of tens of thousands of paramilitary group members, the ceasefire of the AUC, the release of hostages as in the case of Operation Jaque,"La libération de Betancourt n'a rien changé", El Tiempo translated by Courrier international, July 2nd, 2009 (read online archive) and the death of FARC leaders such as Raúl Reyes during Operation Phoenix.(es) "Así fue la Operación Fénix", El País, March 9th, 2008 (read online archive)
In 2010, Álvaro Uribe was constitutionally prohibited from seeking a third term in office, so he endorsed the presidential candidacy of his former defense minister, Juan Manuel Santos,"Colombie : pas de 3e mandat possible pour Uribe", Le Nouvel Observateur, February 27th, 2010 (read online archive)"Le nouveau président colombien promet la continuité", L'Express, June 21, 2010 (read online archive) who was instrumental in the armed forces' successes during operations Phoenix and Jaque in 2008.(es) Cecilia Orozco Tascón, "Juan Manuel Santos, character of the year", El Espectador, December 6th, 2008 (read online archive) At the end of the first round of voting on May 30 of the same year, Uribe's successor, the Partido Social de Unidad Nacional candidate, came out well ahead with 46.56% of the vote, against 21.49% for the Partido Verde candidate, Antanas Mockus, who was thus the favorite for the second round of the presidential election scheduled for June 20, 2010.(es) Marcela Prieto, "Reflexiones liberales : Elecciones presidenciales en Colombia 2010 " archive, Instituto de Ciencia Politica Hernán Echavarría Olózaga (accessed on November 25th, 2012). Hence, the operation took place between the two presidential rounds.
Planification
According to the Colombian authorities' press statement, several months before the launch of "Chameleon Operation", army and police agents infiltrated FARC, cautiously retrieving data from the field on a weekly basis. They penetrated their security systems, copying the new internal communications keys and frequencies that FARC had modified following Operation Jaque. This information was processed by the commander of the Fuerza de Tarea Conjunta Omega (FUTCO), General Javier Flórez, who then passed it on to the higher military hierarchy.(es) "Golpe de camaleón al corazón de las Farc", El Espectador, June 13th, 2010 (read online [archive])
After several months of analyzing the information in their possession, three of the most experienced military intelligence colonels decided to visit General Óscar Enrique González Peña in the first week of February 2010. One of them, who had previously taken part in Operation Jaque in 2008, pinpointed the area where the hostages were located in the department of Guaviare. Thus, the planning was based on all the information processed since 2007, with Jhon Frank Pinchao having succeeded in escaping (after having been a FARC hostage for almost nine years),"According to a former Farc prisoner, Ingrid Betancourt is alive", Libération, May 17th, 2007 (read online archive) the unilateral releases of the Marxist guerrillas, and the rescue of the 15 people kidnapped during Operation Jaque.(es) "Hombres de 'Jaque' y 'Fénix' repitieron hazaña en 'Camaleón'", El Tiempo, June 16, 2010 (read online archive) In addition, guerrilla communications were constantly deciphered, enabling triangulation of the zone between the corregimiento La Paz, the municipality of Calamar, and the Inírida river in the Guaviare.
The intelligence men called the operation "Operación Maestría", while the special operations men preferred to call it "Operación Camaleón".(es) "Así fue la exitosa operación que permitió el rescate de Mendieta, Murillo, Delgado y Donato", El Tiempo, June 14th, 2010 (read online archive) In early March 2010, it began to take shape, thanks to reports from military intelligence and 300 men from the Special Forces (Fuerzas Especiales).(es) "Operación Camaleón", El Espectador, June 14th, 2010 (read online archive) On March 12, Marcos Parrilla, a guerrilla from the FARC's Frente Primero, was captured by the Fuerza de Tarea Conjunta Omega,"Guerrillero 'Marcos Parrilla' y tres informantes recibirán cerca de $2.500 millones por 'Camaleón'", El Tiempo, June 16th, 2010 (read online archive) an elite unit made up of men from the army, navy, air force, and police whose mission is to kill the FARC's main leaders.(es) "Fuerza de tarea Omega, un cuerpo élite contundente", RCN Televisión, September 27th, 2010 (read online archive) He later resigned, giving important information to enable the operation to be carried out, such as the coordinates of the area where the hostages were located.Patrick Bèle, "Colombie : l'armée sauve des otages avant la présidentielle", Le Figaro, June 14th, 2010 (read online archive) He also informed that the guerrilla group and its hostages moved frequently, staying in one place for a short period of time ranging from 8 to 15 days, data which was verified by army intelligence services.(es) "Así volvieron a la libertad cuatro uniformados secuestrados", Semana, June 14th, 2010 (read online archive) FARC infiltrators even managed to reach the camp where the prisoners were being held and set up surveillance systems in various parts of the Guaviare jungle.
The army learned that the hostages were being held by guerrillas from the FARC's Séptimo Frente unit.(es) "Detalles de la 'Operación Camaleón', la misión que rescató a los uniformados", Semana, June 13th, 2010 (read online archive) According to the commander of the military forces, General Freddy Padilla de León, the operation, initially planned for a fortnight, actually lasted only eight days, 36 of which were critical and very high-risk hours.(es) "Operación Camaleón : 36 horas arrastrándose por la selva y 25 minutos de fuego cerrado", Radio Santa Fe, June 15th, 2010 (read online archive)
Course of events
The final stage of Chameleon Operation began on June 2, 2010, with the aim of delivering the final blow to the enemy by June 17, in the knowledge that the hostages could be moved to another camp. That day, some fifty army commandos abseiled into the jungle of the Guaviare department. On the ground, the soldiers were under the command of a captain and two lieutenants from the special forces. At the same time, two colonels who had taken part in Operation Phoenix directed the action from San José del Guaviare.(es) Andrés Felipe Arias, "Reflexiones de Camaleón", El Colombiano, June 26th, 2010 (read online archive) The soldiers were dropped off some thirty kilometers from the FARC camp where the hostages were being held, in the Salto Gloria vereda attached to the municipality of El Retorno. They began to advance cautiously and slowly, averaging 3 km a day towards their objective, only reaching it after ten days, crawling the last two kilometers overnight. Once there, their mission was to observe all the movements of the guerillas guarding the hostages.(es) "Camaleón, como de película", El Colombiano, June 17th, 2010 (read online archive)
On June 10, at 5:30 p.m., President Álvaro Uribe gave the commander of the military forces, General Freddy Padilla de León, the go-ahead to deploy the troops and launch Operation Chameleon. The following day, some 300 special forces men were selected by the general and sent to the Joaquín París Battalion in San José del Guaviare. On Saturday, June 12, at 1 p.m., or "operation zero hour", air force aircraft were attached to the battalion.(es) "Así se desarrolló paso a paso la Operación Camaleón", El País, June 14th, 2010 (read online archive)