Caracas Chronicles

Quico says: Much as I like to play the detached, analytical, curmudgeonly type, I can’t deny the wave of relief and joy that swept through my body just now as I learned that Ingrid Betancourt has been rescued by the Colombian army after a seven year ordeal in the jungle.

Thank heaven. After following the news of her kidnapping for all these years, didn’t we all feel like we got to know her a little? Who among us didn’t feel invested in her case, like a bit of our humanity was being held hostage out in that jungle along with her?

Today, she’s free, and we all beathe a little easier for it.

Now, then: that’s as much mushy stuff as you’ll get out of me all year.

On to my favorite game: Compare and Contrast, headline edition.

El Universal (Caracas): Rescatan a Ingrid Betancourt y a otros 14 rehenes de las FARC

BBC: Betancourt ‘rescued in Colombia’

El Mundo (Madrid): Ingrid Betancourt y otros 14 rehenes, rescatados por el Ejército colombiano

Miami Herald: Colombia: 3 Americans, Betancourt rescued

El Tiempo (Bogotá): Rescatada Ingrid Betancourt, los 3 estadounidenses y otros 11 secuestrados de la Fuerza Pública

VTV (Venezuelan State TV): Liberada Ingrid Betancourt y otros 14 retenidos

Spot the difference?

Update: A reader sends this in…

Subject: VTV .. even worse than you think.….

I just watched the early evening news on VTV, and the treatment was, “FARC liberated Ingrid Betancourt and 14 others through a Colombian army operation…”

It didn’t get any better. Every other phrase was a dig at Uribe or a snide comment of one kind or another. They clipped Ingrid’s comments on Chavez/Correa’s mediation being “very important” just before the “but…” that introduced the unequivocal condition that it needed to be done “respecting Colombian democracy” and the frase lapidaria .. “el pueblo colombiano elected Presidente Alvaro Uribe, it didn’t elect FARC”. (To its credit, ABN reported the full quote.)

…and these are the people that want to give us lessons in journalistic ethics. Even as we speak, Izarrita is telling the non-aligned nations that Telesur should be their voice.