After a Long Trek Across Colombia, Hostage Advocate Not Ready to Rest

"Hopefully we can help," Chávez said this past weekend in a nationally televised speech. "Hopefully we can convince the guerrilla forces of the FARC, and the Colombian government, to find a position to free these people."

This year, perhaps more than any other, the quandary of the hostages has been at the forefront of the national consciousness in Colombia. The escape of two prisoners from captivity -- and their stories of hardship in jungle camps -- captivated the nation. Then in June, the country was shaken when 11 civilian lawmakers held by the FARC were slain under murky circumstances.

In Colombia, where opinion polls show broad public support for the conservative government, Moncayo's brash determination and willingness to criticize the president's policies are seen by some as close to treasonous, even though his son was captured in a ferocious rebel attack on a military base in 1997.

In his column in El Tiempo, the country's leading newspaper, Fernando Londoño, a former interior minister, belittled Moncayo's son, Pablo Emilio Moncayo, as an incompetent soldier and accused the father of spreading "Marxist venom through Colombia's veins."

Even some Colombians who are critical of Uribe's tough stance on the hostages have questioned whether Moncayo has added much to the debate. Juan Carlos Lecompte, Ingrid Betancourt's husband, said he believes that Moncayo lost a golden opportunity by scolding Uribe for everything from poverty to the state of the country's schools, then delivering a rambling speech in the plaza.

"I would have liked to have seen Moncayo put Uribe in his place," Lecompte said.

Still, as El Tiempo noted in editorials, Moncayo's march drew so much support and news coverage that he has become a "political symbol against the cruelty of kidnapping" that could inspire a sustained movement.

Though surprised by all the attention, Moncayo has not let opportunity pass -- nor has he held back, particularly when he was in the plaza. He said the government's offers to release rebels amounted to empty gestures, because the FARC never agreed to reciprocate by releasing hostages. And he blamed Uribe for being recalcitrant.

"You're not the owner of life," Moncayo said.

Seated one evening in his tent, with a light rain falling outside, Moncayo was as busy as ever, attending to a parade of people who stopped by to ask for his help or blessing. There were farmers seeking government aid and the homeless who wander around the city center. Some passersby simply wanted to have their picture taken with Moncayo.

But the symbolic chains that he wears wherever he goes -- to dramatize the plight of the kidnapped -- underscore why he has come all the way to Bogota. "My life was happy until my son had to go into the service," he explained. "From the moment I heard the news he was kidnapped, I've been crazy with sorrow."

He stresses that it was then, in 1997, that his fight began. He has frequently gone on the radio, urging the FARC to release his son. He has even gone deep into rebel territory to talk with some of the FARC's top commanders.

"I've run around with these chains, up and down and all around, but no one cared," he said. "The only solution was to come to Bogota and knock on doors."