Mission
President of Venezuela Hugo Chávez said that the plan consisted of three phases. The first phase was to send two Mil Mi-17 helicopters to Colombia carrying five International Red Cross Committee delegates. Both helicopters were to be equipped with medical aid apt for the humanitarian mission and in accordance with International Red Cross standards. Chávez personally inspected the two helicopters in Santo Domingo before departing along with former president of Argentina Néstor Kirchner, who was also invited to supervise the operations. Besides the two Mi-17 helicopters, two Bell 412 helicopters and three French-made executive jets Falcon 200 were also used for support tasks.
Along with the ICRC delegates there were representatives from Ecuador, Brazil, Argentina, France, Cuba, Bolivia, Colombia and Switzerland. Hollywood director Oliver Stone was contacted by Chávez to film a documentary about the ordeal.
Family members of the three hostages traveled from Colombia to Caracas to wait for the end of the operation, set to conclude in Caracas with President Chávez receiving them, as previously petitioned by the FARC as a condition.
Read more about this topic: Operation Emmanuel
Famous quotes containing the word mission:
“We never can tell how our lives may work to the account of the general good, and we are not wise enough to know if we have fulfilled our mission or not.”
—Ellen Henrietta Swallow Richards (1842–1911)
“When you’re dealing with monkeys, you’ve got to expect some wrenches.”
—Alvah Bessie, Ranald MacDougall, and Lester Cole. Raoul Walsh. Captain Nelson, Objective Burma, giving a subaltern a mission (1945)
“Perhaps the mission of those who love mankind is to make people laugh at the truth, to make truth laugh, because the only truth lies in learning to free ourselves from insane passion for the truth.”
—Umberto Eco (b. 1932)