- How the Colombian army sent a hidden message to hostages… using a pop song
...but...but...but...but... they didn't actually rescue them! So the timeline is: "sometime in 2010" General whoozit decides to consult an ad agency to help with a hostage rescue "Hiding the morse code took weeks" but "finally in September 2010" they start peppering the airwaves around the FARC December 2010, 5 hostages released February 2011, 2 more hostages released Spring 2012, last 10 hostages released So really, this is a story about a general who paid to have a ballad composed to hostages rather than do anything about them.[MORSE MESSAGE] 19 people rescued. You’re next. Don’t lose hope
Later in December 2010, the FARC announced its plans to release five more hostages as a humanitarian gesture, including a police major, two military service members, and two politicians; two months later, Major Guillermo Solorzano, 35, and Corporal Salin Sanmiguel, 28, were released back to their families; and in the spring of 2012, the last 10 police and military hostages — some of whom had spent 14 years in captivity — were released and flown in a Brazilian military helicopter to safety.
I would say that giving people hope in a hopeless situation isn't doing nothing. Regardless though, it's a pretty fascinating story. Did you listen to the song? You would have to be pretty quick at deciphering morris code to understand it. Also that video of the "t-o-r-t-u-r-e" blink is amazing, I had never seen that before.
A student of psyops would argue that the time and energy would be better spent on demoralizing the FARC and humanizing their hostages in order to temper the climate for politically-motivated kidnapping. I believe that's what the movie "Wag the Dog" was about. The CIA has been doing this shit for decades. The fact that the ad exec was forced to flee the country demonstrates the successfulness of PR in wars such as this. I'd seen the video before, but then I eat sleep and breathe this shit. As far as morse code...
I mean it's something. If they go in with guns and bombs the hostages will die. If I was stuck in the jungle I think knowing that the government still cares even a tiny bit would at least cheer me up.