You are hereOperation Jaque not Perfect after all; an officer wore a cloth with the Red Cross symbol
Operation Jaque not Perfect after all; an officer wore a cloth with the Red Cross symbol
It was revealed to CNN by a person calling him/herself a Colombian military that one of the commandos in the Operation Jaque put a Red Cross scarf on one of his arms. The Colombian government later, made a diligent investigation that found that one of the soldiers that carried the rescue mission carried this scarf, and put it on his arm by his own initiative, and in contrary to the plan. It is claimed that this military did this out of "nervousness" and put it on right before the helicopter landed in the FARC coca field where the guerrilla rebels were waiting for them with the 15 hostages.
In this video (in Spanish), Uribe talks about the details of the mistake by the soldier, and says that he "when the helicopter was about to land he saw such a large number of guerrillas that he became nervous and took the piece of cloth with the symbols of the international Red Cross and put them on top of his vest"; Uribe also says that the Colombian Defense Minister and high ranking officers were meeting with the Red Cross officials in Colombia to offer apologies.