Is this being covered in the U.S. yet? I searched a bit, but couldn’t find anything.
The front page story (in Spanish - I can translate bits if anyone wants) in today’s La Prensa, Panama’s leading newspaper, is about an attack by Colombian paramilitaries on Paya, an Indian village near the border in remote Darien province. Four residents, including the chief and vice-chief, were killed, and the place was generally shot up and looted. Besides this, Robert Pelton, of the Discovery Channel, and two companions (one American, one Canadian) were kidnapped.
Pelton is best known as the author of The World’s Most Dangerous Places. I assume he was doing research on his Discovery Channel series when he was captured. It seems like his derring-do has finally caught up with him.
Now, I’ve been to the Darien 15 times, and have even been to Pucro, which is next to Paya and which was also shot up by the paras. But I went there in 1992, before things really started to get bad. For the last 8 years or so the area has been crawling with FARC, paras, narcos and bad guys in general. Going there without a heavy police escort was a very good way for Pelton to get himself an extended tour of the jungles of western Colombia for the next few years. (If his employers don’t pay his ransom.)
Let me know if you see anything on this in the U.S.
Ah, this is sad. I’m reluctant to say it, but it’s sort of inevitable, when you consider where he goes. I’m really sorry to hear it though, he’s quite a refreshing writer. He’s second in line of my favorite travel authors, only below the venerated PJ O’Rourke.
Haven’t heard anything in the US yet. How likely is it that he’ll survive, do you think?
Anyway, good luck to him, and thanks for the info.
The World’s Most Dangerous Places was always one of my favorite books, and Robert Young Pelton seemed like a cool, smart, generally aware kinda guy. Here’s hoping he’s okay.
Incidentally, if anyone has an increased chance of surviving this, it’s him. His books contain solid advice about ways to keep calm and survive if you’re in trouble.
For years the FARC (the leftist rebels) used to come into the Darien to take refuge from pursuit by the Colombian army or the rightist paramilitaries. They generally didn’t cause much trouble in Panama, since they didn’t want to provoke Panama to take action against them. (Not that Panama could do much - they are heavily out-gunned in the area.) Although the FARC regularly take hostages for ransom in Colombia, they rarely have done that here. An exception was the case of three missionaries who were kidnapped in 1993 near the site of the recent attack. After many years of uncertainty about their fate, it now seems they were killed in Colombia in 1996.
A few years ago the paras started to pursue the FARC into Panama. They have caused much more trouble, murdering suspected FARC sympathizers, whether Colombian refugees or Panamanian. However, they generally don’t take hostages for ransom, and they don’t usually molest U.S. citizens, since they feel the U.S. is much more hostile toward the FARC than to them.
I have his book. It was only a matter of time, I guess, and I think he knew it. At least (from the sounds of it) he’ll work out what to do to keep himself alive and keep his captors ‘aware’ of his importance - and then escape.
Probably not the best course, in this case. Given the fact that his captors seem to be the AUC (rightist paramilitaries) rather than the FARC (leftist rebels), I think it’s pretty likely they will let him and his companions go fairly soon. As I said, the AUC usually doesn’t hold prisoners for ransom, and usually doesn’t mess with Americans. Of course, there’s always some risk in a case like this, but he’s in much less danger for his life, or of being held for a long time, than if he had been taken by the FARC.
