[shutupalready]

> From the article

Yes, you read the article. But the hostages didn't!

All the hostage heard is "19 people rescued. You are next. Don’t lose hope". How does a hostage conclude "you should try to escape" from the preceding message?

[kilburn]

The hostages were mainly soldiers of the colombian army who had been fighting against the FARC's guerrilla tactics for a long time. There are many hostages, held at different locations throughout the jungle by different captors. And they just know better than you and me, no need to read any article.

Now, the message is not a call to direct action because there is no possible action that would benefit all hostages getting it. It's just providing them hope and information (we're busting our assess off on active operations, so if something makes you think we're coming or around, there's actually a good chance we are). Do as you see fit if/when that happens.

Also, your whole reasoning is fairly solid, but you are building it on top of a wrong context. The hostages are not the average american and the captors are not the bad guys from a movie. Your popular culture is wildly different than the cultures of the involved parties. You should get that straight before making any reasoning using your own context instead.