Captive: 2,147 Days of Terror in the Colombian Jungle (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781439156957)

On a fateful day in February 2002, campaign manager Clara Rojas accompanied longtime friend and presidential hopeful Ingrid Betancourt into an area controlled by the powerful leftist guerrilla group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Armed with machine guns and grenades, the FARC took them hostage and kept them in the jungle for the next six years.

After more than two years of captivity deep in the Colombian jungle, surrounded by jaguars, snakes, and tarantulas, miles from any town or hospital, Clara Rojas prepared to give birth in a muddy tent surrounded by heavily armed guerrillas. Her captors promised that a doctor would be brought to the camp to help her. But when Rojas went into labor and began to suffer complications, the only person on hand was a guerrilla wielding a kitchen knife. The guerrillas drugged Rojas with anesthetic while one of them slit open her abdomen. Her son, Emmanuel, was born by amateur cesarean section in April 2004. His survival was miraculous, but her joy was soon cut short when the FARC took him from her when he was only eight months old. For the next three years, Clara was given no information about him, but her desire to one day see him again kept her alive. In early 2008, Clara was finally liberated and reunited with her son--to whom this book is dedicated.

Author: Clara Rojas
ISBN-10: 1439156956
ISBN-13: 9781439156957
Publisher: Atria Books
Language: English
Published: 05/25/2010
Pages: 256
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.49lbs
Size: 8.50h x 5.62w x 0.64d

Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 03/15/2010
Booklist 05/15/2010 pg. 8
New York Review of Books 12/09/2010 pg. 22