A secret message in a Colombian song gave hostages hope

I struggle to believe that if a hostage with military training can notice and decipher the hidden morse code, that a hostage taker with paramilitary training wouldn&#x27;t also spot it. But then it&#x27;s probably not too much of a problem if they did, except for maybe shutting of the radios.<p>The section of the song with the morse code almost sounds like there is interference. Maybe when played on the radio in the jungle it would be less obviously &quot;odd&quot; than when in a high def digital format.

Colombia&#x27;s had some of the most creative spec ops tactics anywhere. They rescued 15 hostages by posing as NGOS with no bullets shot [1]. Many other examples exist.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Operation_Jaque" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Operation_Jaque</a>)

Very interesting. The chorus has the lyrics: &quot;a message from my heart&quot; and then &quot;listen to this message&quot; before going into the section with the morse code message.

The message:<p>“19 people rescued. You&#x27;re next. Don&#x27;t lose hope.”<p>More info:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Better_Days_(Natalia_Gutierrez_y_Angelo_song)" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Better_Days_(Natalia_Gutierrez...</a>

It&#x27;s a bit weird. I would definitely think there&#x27;s something wrong with the song, even if I couldn&#x27;t decifer it.

Amazing. Also it just sounds really... cool. Almost a little unsettlingly like a real-world version of some strange encoding in a Boards of Canada track or something. Wild.

Dream Theater hid a (decidedly less wholesome) message in Morse code in one of their songs, and it took fans a while to find it even after the band revealed that something was hidden in the song (third bullet point from the bottom here <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Train_of_Thought_(Dream_Theater_album)#Songs" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Train_of_Thought_(Dream_Theate...</a>). I imagine that hiding these sorts of messages in songs would be fairly easy, but making them possible to decipher for a passive listener without being too obvious seems a lot tougher.

I wonder if they took any inspiration from Martin Galway&#x27;s not-so-secret morse code hidden message in the C64 Rambo intro song, which is a game about rescuing prisoners of war, that was released in 1985.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=vfXpQUVc8dc&amp;ab_channel=Zeusdaz-TheUnemulatedRetroGameChannel">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=vfXpQUVc8dc&amp;ab_channel=Zeusd...</a><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;tcrf.net&#x2F;Rambo:_First_Blood_Part_II_(Commodore_64)" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;tcrf.net&#x2F;Rambo:_First_Blood_Part_II_(Commodore_64)</a>

&gt; <i>The code was inserted in three different places within the song and the team decided to transmit one simple message: &quot;19 people rescued. You&#x27;re next. Don&#x27;t lose hope.&quot; After eight months, the song was ready for its first broadcast</i><p>Was there also rescuing going on during the development of the song?

I&#x27;d rather be a prisoner than listen to that.<p>Was my first thought. Second thought for anybody that found this interesting: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;crooked.com&#x2F;podcast-series&#x2F;wind-of-change&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;crooked.com&#x2F;podcast-series&#x2F;wind-of-change&#x2F;</a> explores the idea that the CIA was responsible for the writing of the Scorpions hit Wind of Change.

Sounds like an excellent propaganda op of totally dubious value with respect to the actual hostages.

I always thought of this as a gimmick from the government. Why would they risk an operation just to send hopes to the hostages. I always felt this was more to get good will from people than for the hostages themselves.<p>And as always, only part of the story is told. Who were the guerrilla? who where the hostages? not defending them, but in the countryside is common that the guerilla defends the farmers, and the hostages are corrupt politicans.