Colombia vote: Former FARC hostages run for Congress

Ms. Rojas, who famously gave birth during her six-year captivity and only recovered her son Emmanuel after her release in 2008, says that despite the dangers, her family has been highly supportive of her decision. Emmanuel, 5, even helps her hand out pamphlets, she says. “He’s just beginning to understand about politics,” she says.

Candidates say captivity helped them

When Luis Eladio Pérez, who was a senator of the Liberal Party when he was kidnapped in 2001, was released in February 2008, he flatly rejected the thought of ever returning to politics. “But as time went by I understood that I had to participate in politics to try to help end the conflict in this country,” he says. Mr. Pérez is running for senator as an independent.

Like most of the former hostages, Pérez says his experience in captivity made him more attuned to the needs of Colombian voters and better prepared him to represent them. “Having understood the other reality of the country has made me more sensitive to the drama that millions of Colombians live,” he says. Pérez spent much of his captivity with Betancourt drafting a 190-point political platform to reform the country once they got out. Perez says his proposals in Congress take up many of the ideas they discussed in the jungles of Colombia.

Sigifredo López was the sole survivor of 12 regional lawmakers kidnapped in a bold 2002 FARC raid on Cali's provincial assembly. His colleagues were killed by their captors in 2007. He was freed in early 2009. "God kept me alive for a reason,” he says. “I believe that reason is to contribute to reconciliation in this country.” López is running for the Senate as a Liberal Party candidate.

Using the 'kidnap card'?

Beatriz Gil, a political analyst with the Congreso Visible congressional watchdog group, says the former hostages could have a good showing because Colombian voters are often moved by emotions.

“People remember them from the live television coverage of their releases. The votes they get will most likely be emotional votes,” she says, adding however that that fact should not discredit them as politicians. “After what they’ve lived, they could add a new vision to politics in Colombia."

It's a factor López is touting.

“I know how the actors think, on all sides [of the conflict],” says López. "I understand the interests that are in play.”

Pérez says he has not used the “kidnap card” in his campaign, though at rallies people often ask him for detail of what it was like to live in the jungle all those years. “I want people to vote for me out of conviction, not compassion,” he says.

However, former lawmaker Jorge Eduardo Géchem, who spent six years in the hands of the FARC before being released in 2008 decided to remind voters of his condition as a former hostage. The slogan of his campaign for the House of Representatives for the pro-Uribe “U” Party is: “If I got out, Colombia can too.”

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