The Chávez, FARC Hostage Saga Embarrassment

The results gave a black eye to the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, indicating that its top leaders had either lied in making the offer to release the hostages or had lost one of their high-value hostages and didn't even know it.

The Colombian government took the opportunity to blast the FARC.

''This proves again that the FARC is lying to the world, laughing in the face of national and international public opinion by offering someone they didn't have,'' said Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos.

A FARC representative confirmed Friday that the group did not have the boy, and others said the botched operation reflected not lying but serious difficulties inside the rebel group.

''The most likely scenario is that the FARC is in complete disarray and that they somehow lost one of their highest-prized hostages,'' said Adam Isacson, a Colombia analyst with the Center for International Policy, a Washington think tank.

Though the right-of-center Uribe appeared to have been outsmarted by the FARC's offer -- his hard-line approach to negotiations with the rebels has been harshly criticized by political opponents and relatives of hostages -- he seems to have emerged from the busted hostage release as the only credible figure in the process.

Chávez suffered a humiliating embarrassment. The FARC's offer to release the three hostages to him had put him in the spotlight. He had assembled a team of high-profile international observers to witness the release -- including former Argentine President Néstor Kirchner and U.S. filmmaker Oliver Stone -- and sent Venezuelan helicopters to pick them up in the jungle. They were left waiting.

It was his second political blow in the last two months. In early December he lost a referendum to change the constitution, including one article that would have allowed him to seek indefinite reelection.

Since the botched operation -- which he had dubbed Operation Emmanuel after the little boy -- Chávez has remained unusually quiet. Venezuelan officials have complained, however that Colombia has not permitted its own team of specialists to take blood samples from the boy for DNA testing.

The biggest losers in the failed operation, said Isacson, are the hostages and their families.

''One can only but wonder what kind of control the guerrilla has over the other hostages,'' Isacson said.

The FARC reportedly holds about 750 hostages for ransom or political exchange, including three American military contractors captured in 2003 when their plane -- part of a drug-fighting mission -- crashed in the jungle.