Storytellers, embellishers, and con artists often lurk in the media. The United States is hardly short of professional exaggerators when it comes to military feats and achievements. Sometimes, men who claim to have “served” on “active duty” in Vietnam, for instance, present themselves as having navigated rice paddies, while in reality, they were sitting at a desk job, never lifting a rifle.
Imagine my surprise when I stumbled upon a strange set of contradictions involving a famous adventurer: Robert Young Pelton. Here’s how Pelton describes himself:
“Author and filmmaker Robert Young Pelton is known for overcoming extraordinary obstacles in his ongoing quest for truth. Pelton’s career consists of bypassing the media, border guards, and military groups to get to the heart of the story…”
One of his bold claims: “He has been kidnapped by right-wing death squads in Colombia…”
Pelton has become a brand of danger. A quick Google search will yield plenty of evidence of his adventures in hazardous locations. Pelton regularly survives mortar fire, terrorist attacks, waltzes in war zones, meets impossible-to-find fugitives, and always escapes unscathed. Often, his accounts are personal narratives without secondary evidence. If we are to believe him, he is like a modern action figure: an Indiana Jones. The above excerpt is from his own site, comebackalive.com, an online commercial platform where gamblers can read about his journeys and purchase travel gear, insurance, but most importantly, it’s a big advertisement for his ongoing book sales. Pelton is also a frequent writer for respected media outlets like Foreign Policy.
I encountered Pelton while reading about a guerrilla incursion in Panama that resulted in the deaths of four people in the towns of Paya and Púcuro in January 2003. I recently published in Semana de Colombia and regularly collaborate with its journalists, so I thought I’d write a column about the AUC and their human rights violations.
I came across Pelton while reading about a guerrilla incursion in Panama that killed four people in Paya and Púcuro in January 2003. I had recently published in Semana de Colombia and regularly work with their journalists, so I decided to write a column about the AUC and their human rights abuses.
In a National Geographic interview with Pelton titled “Adventure Magazine Reporter Recounts Ten-Day Kidnapping by Colombian Death Squad,” the following is stated:
Robert Young Pelton, along with two travel companions, Mark Wedeven and Megan Smaker, were kidnapped on January 14 by a right-wing paramilitary group in the Darién Gap in Panama. The Elmer Cárdenas Bloc, a splinter group of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), released Pelton and the two young backpackers last Thursday after holding the trio captive for ten days in the jungle along the Panama-Colombia border.
The news of Pelton’s kidnapping was hot. It was published far and wide. But a statement from his companion Mark Wedeven, made just after their release and distributed by Associated Press, contradicted Pelton’s narrative:
“Wedeven said he never felt that he and his travel companions were kidnapped. We were not kidnapped,” Wedeven stated. “During the time we were with the AUC, we had no issues.”
Sadly, Mark Wedeven died in 2010 after being caught in an avalanche on Mount Rainier. However, in 2010 a program aired about his time in Panama and Colombia titled “Locked Up Abroad,” also for National Geographic. He stated that they were never tied up…,” which supports earlier claims of not being kidnapped. Wedeven also contradicts Pelton’s assertions of having been involved in undefined gunfire. Wedeven claims that they were walking toward the sound of gunfire and were surprised and ambushed by four men.
Megan Smaker, also part of the expedition, seems to lean more towards Wedeven’s version, stating: “After about 30 minutes, they reached the top of a hill where five rebels with AK-47s appeared… instead of Pelton. “I don’t know if you know what it’s like to enter a gunfight, but they were anxious and agitated, shouting and screaming.”
I kept digging. The more I found, the more I realized something was off, like reports in Colombian media, which state that Pelton and others were “intercepted” by the AUC while hiking in the Darién jungle (Wedeven & Smaker’s version), and were protected by the AUC until they could be safely handed over to religious authorities, which indeed happened. There’s also an actual press release sent by AUC commander Carlos Castaño to Reuters, stating that Pelton and his companions were found wandering in the Urabá region of Chocó and were escorted out of the area for their own safety.
So, here we have a group of seven individuals (Pelton, Wedeven, Smaker, guide Víctor Alcazar, and three Kuna porters) crossing the Darién Gap. It’s very suspicious, at least in my opinion, that an experienced traveler in the world’s most dangerous places, as Pelton claims to be, roams around a risky area with a 22-year-old blonde lacking experience in such situations (a volunteer firefighter) whom he supposedly met online, and another thrill-seeker of 22, equally clueless and inept, whom Pelton bumped into in a map store in Panama (I’m not joking, these were Pelton’s companions). The accounts of what occurred in Colombia simply don’t add up; most parties contradict what Pelton asserts. Then, the three were handed over to a priest, completely unharmed. No ransom or other demands were made in exchange for these unfortunate valuable Americans. What kind of kidnapping is that? Meanwhile, Colombian authorities believed this all occurred on Colombian territory, while former Panama president Mireya Moscoso asserted it happened in Panama.
Meanwhile, Pelton’s expedition guide (Pelton, the heroic conqueror of the world’s most dangerous places hired a jungle tour guide), Víctor Alcazar, states that they were camping by a river when they were intercepted by a dozen undefined paramilitaries.
Other accounts refer to three Kuna indigenous people heading to Arquía, a locality in Chocó, when they heard a voice ordering them to stop, followed by gunshots. They began to run towards Paya, and along the way encountered Pelton and company, warning them but they decided to continue.
I couldn’t believe these contradictions, so I started making some phone calls. Further undermining Pelton’s version, a source involved in helping the AUC escort Pelton safely out of the Darién to hand him over to the priests told me over the phone that “Pelton was never kidnapped,” but “made the whole thing up.”
Shadows of the professional fabulist Greg Mortenson
There’s no doubt that Pelton spent days with the AUC in Colombia. Rather, it’s what seems to be his embellishment of the events, his twisting of the truth for commercial reasons. Fact-checking such stories is practically impossible: Wedeven is deceased, and the guerrilla commanders who “kidnapped” him can’t be located. There are no easily accessible communications for the Kuna Indians, although perhaps Smaker would like to shed light on how and where exactly she met Pelton (not in Panama, I’ve been told). Pelton’s account appears to be fabricated, morphing a “found wandering in the jungle by guerrillas and then escorted by them to priests” into a story about being “kidnapped by right-wing death squads in Colombia.” Pelton literally has dozens of tales ranging from Chechnya to Mogadishu and Papua New Guinea. All places where local people wouldn’t be trusted if they contradicted this National Geographic explorer, so what else has he been making up?
In 2009, I was working for a human rights group and was on staff at the Oslo Freedom Forum in Norway, where Mortenson, a familiar name, was one of the guest speakers. Mortenson was the enormously famous American who had been establishing schools for girls in Pakistan. It turned out that Mortenson’s books, which earned him millions, were based on large-scale fabrications of facts. Some of the biggest lies included being present in Mother Teresa’s death room just hours after she passed and being kidnapped by the Taliban. All lies. And no one could contradict him. One man, Jon Krakauer, began peeling away the voluminous layers of deception, and the whole house of cards came crashing down. Mortenson was not only a fraud with his book, but he was also defrauding the foundation he created, spending millions on private jet travel and boosting his book sales by having the foundation buy them in bulk to keep them at the top of bestseller lists.
I eventually reached out to Pelton with some of my questions, and he replied dismissively:
“You can consult local news sources for independent photographs and accounts of the event. Just Google it. Many video images were also taken.”
Yes, there are sources, Mr. Pelton, some linked above, and the independent accounts do not align with your version. I find it strange that Colombian guerrillas would just release Pelton and his companions like that. It seems implausible. Someone like him is a valuable bargaining chip, and I certainly don’t buy the macho posturing of a gringo claiming to discuss his freedom with Colombian criminals who, by the way, were coming off a wave of murders in Panama. So, I’m throwing down the gauntlet and hope others can help me investigate what looks like the military version of Greg Mortenson.