Historic Information: John Frank Pinchao, Escaped from same Camp where some of the 15 Hostages were Held

John Frarnk Pinchao was captured during a FARC raid in the town of Mitu in 1998 with almost 60 other fellow policemen.  Although all these almost 60 captives were promised freedom by their captors in 1999, only the lower-rank policemen and military captured by the FARC were released during the failed peace process, in fact the prisoners were kept in the demilitarized zone.

Pinchao escaped from the jungle camp he was being held in April 28, 2007 (after 9 years of captivity), and reached a population after 17 days in the jungle.  The escape of Pinchao was called miraculous and even looked suspicious by many, since in the more than 40 years of kidnappings by guerrilla groups in Colombia, very few hostages had escaped.  While the suspicions were unfounded, Mr. Pinchao who was Sub-intendant of the Colombian Police at the moment of his kidnapping he provided the Colombian Government with very important location and strategic information that was later used in Operation Jaque.
 
The many attacks against Pinchao's loyalty to his fellow prisioners and to Colombia were finally alleviated when some of the hostages freed in Operation Jaque spoke in a very positive manner of Mr. John Pinchao and his escape.
 
This interview of Pinchao from France24.com was filmed in September 2007.  In it Pinchao describes very briefly the living conditions, as well as his relationship with some of the other hostages.  The Wikipedia entry for John F. Pinchao also gives a bit of more detail of his capture and escape from the Jungle camp in which he and others were being held in captivity.