Ex-hostage's mom, once a critic, turns Colombian
Associated Press
Published: September 19, 2008
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- Before her son's rescue in July, the mother of a U.S. military contractor held captive by leftist rebels often swore at Colombian President Alvaro Uribe.
Now, Jo Rosano is about to swear allegiance to his country.
The Bristol, Connecticut, woman plans to become a Colombian citizen in Washington on Friday, when Uribe meets Marc Gonsalves and two fellow ex-hostages for the first time.
Uribe, who gave the order that launched the Colombian military's rescue of the three men, personally approved Rosano's citizenship application and will give her the oath.
"I love Colombia and I love the people," Rosano told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.
Rosano was a bitter critic of Uribe's hard line against her son's captors during his five years as a hostage of Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. She publicly opposed the president's preference for a military rescue over negotiations that could lead to a prisoner swap with the rebels.
"Now I understand what he was up against," said Rosano, 59, explaining that as a mother seeking Gonsalves' safe return she "had to more or less kiss the FARC's butt."
On July 2, military agents rescued the three contractors and 12 other hostages after tricking the guerrillas into believing that an international humanitarian group was going to transfer the captives to another rebel camp by helicopter.
After his rescue, Gonsalves told his mother that guerrillas had informed him they had orders to kill him immediately if a rescue was attempted.
Rosano said she fell in love with Colombia during three visits after her son's surveillance plane crashed near a rebel camp in February 2003, beginning the long ordeal for Gonsalves, Keith Stansell and Thomas Howes.
"I knew nothing about Colombia until my son got caught up in all this," said Rosano, who speaks just a few words of Spanish.
She said she recently spoke with Ingrid Betancourt, the dual French national and former presidential candidate who was freed with the three Americans and 11 other Colombians.
"She said, "I love you like a mother,'" said Rosano, who counts Betancourt's mother, Yolanda Pulecio, among the Colombians she holds dear.
Rosano's Colombian citizenship is exceptional: Foreign Ministry official Claudia Sinning told the AP that Uribe has granted waivers of the usual requirements to only 40 other foreigners since he took office in 2002.
Gonsalves, Stansell and Howes have generally spurned interview requests and are seeking a book deal.
But last month, they spoke with Colombian radio, using fluent, slang-laced Spanish to announce plans to make a motorcycle tour in the United States aimed at calling attention to the dozens of Colombians still being held hostage by the FARC. Rosano said the trip will likely take place in February.
The three men received motorcycles from Harley-Davidson when they attended the bike company's late-August convention in Milwaukee, Rosano said.
The rescued Americans' employer, Northrop Grumman, also has been good to them, guaranteeing the three jobs when they're ready to return to work, Rosano said.
Rosano told the AP she wants peace in Colombia, and "I want to be able to go back some day."
But for now she's not giving up her U.S. citizenship, nor does she or Gonsalves, 36, plan to visit Colombia anytime soon, for fear of being targeted by the FARC.
"Even my son said to me, 'Mom, don't go to Colombia. You'll be a sitting duck for them,'" she said.
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