HomeNewsBriefFARC Promises to Release French Journalist Soon
BRIEF

FARC Promises to Release French Journalist Soon

COLOMBIA / 7 MAY 2012 BY EDWARD FOX EN

The FARC has announced that captured journalist Romeo Langlois, who is reportedly being held by one of the group's biggest drug trafficking fronts, will be released soon.

The Tweet, sent on Sunday from the account @FARC_EP, read, "The prisoner of war: French journalist Romeo Langlois, will be released soon, safe and sound." The message came hours after a video showed a commander from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC's) 15th Front reading a communique confirming that Langlois had been taken prisoner by the guerrillas during a seven-hour battle with Colombian forces on April 28. The video was filmed by journalists Karl Penhaul and Carlos Villalon.

Langlois' release will likely be organized by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). In order to facilitate this, military operations in the region where Langlois is thought to be being held, in the north of Caqueta province, have been temporarily suspended, General Javier Rey Navas of the Colombian Army told RCN Radio. No immediate timeframe for the journalist's release has been given, however.

InSight Crime Analysis

Langlois is being held by the 15th Front of the FARC, which El Tiempo reports is one of the biggest drug trafficking fronts within the rebel organization, shipping an estimated 30 tons of cocaine a year. Due to the size of its trafficking operations, which include coca plantations and coca paste laboratories spread throughout the south of the country, as well as its Caqueta stronghold, the front has been able to position itself as a supplier to the Mexican Sinaloa Cartel, reports El Tiempo.

The Sinaloa Cartel are also reportedly work with the 48th Front; in April last year, Colombian police arrested an alleged intermediary between the front, the Mexican cartel, and the Rastrojos drug gang. The 15th Front are known to work closely with the 48th, who base their operations in Putumayo province, which borders Caqueta.

Debate has raged over whether Langlois should be considered a prisoner of war. The FARC claim this is justified as he was taken in the midst of a battle between the guerrillas and armed forces while, they say, wearing military uniform. As InSight Crime has noted, his capture highlights the complications around the role of journalists reporting from modern conflict zones, particularly those involving organized criminal groups, where the positions of combatants and non-combatants are often ill-defined.

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Tags

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

COCAINE / 3 FEB 2023

Colombia's negotiations with a range of criminal groups, as part of the Total Peace plan, will be complicated by record…

AUC / 28 OCT 2021

Accused paramilitary drug lord Guillermo León Acevedo, alias "Memo Fantasma," will remain in a high-security Colombian prison, where he has…

COLOMBIA / 26 MAY 2022

Prosecutors in Colombia held a hearing with the partner of alleged drug trafficker Guillermo León Acevedo, alias "Memo Fantasma," on…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Contributes Expertise Across the Board 

22 SEP 2023

This week InSight Crime investigators Sara García and María Fernanda Ramírez led a discussion of the challenges posed by Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s “Total Peace” plan within urban contexts. The…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in New Colombia Drug Policy Plan

15 SEP 2023

InSight Crime’s work on emerging coca cultivation in Honduras, Guatemala, and Venezuela was cited in the Colombian government’s…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Discusses Honduran Women's Prison Investigation

8 SEP 2023

Investigators Victoria Dittmar and María Fernanda Ramírez discussed InSight Crime’s recent investigation of a massacre in Honduras’ only women’s prison in a Twitter Spaces event on…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Trafficking Investigation Published in Leading Mexican Newspaper

1 SEP 2023

Leading Mexican media outlet El Universal featured our most recent investigation, “The Geography of Human Trafficking on the US-Mexico Border,” on the front page of its August 30…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Coverage of Ecuador Leads International Debate

25 AUG 2023

This week, Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, was interviewed by La Sexta, a Spanish television channel, about the situation of extreme violence and insecurity in Ecuador…