French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt and three Americans have been rescued from leftist guerrillas by Colombian troops.
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| This photo released by the Colombian government in 2007 shows Betancourt at an unknown location |
Colombia's defence minister Juan Manuel Santos said all of the former hostages were in reasonably good health after being held for years in secret jungle camps.
The office of France's President Nicolas Sarkozy also confirmed tonight that Ms Betancourt had been freed and was at a Colombian military base.
The operation freed 15 hostages in total including several Colombian soldiers and police, Minister Santos said.
He said the military intelligence agents infiltrated the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as the Farc, and led the local commander in charge of the hostages to believe they were going to take them by helicopter to Alfonso Cano, the guerrillas’ supreme leader.
Surrounded by military commandos, the guerrillas gave up without a fight as the helicopters took the hostages to a military base in Guaviare.
Farc has been holding about 40 high-profile hostages it has sought to exchange for jailed rebels.
Ms Betancourt, a former presidential candidate with dual nationality, was kidnapped by the Farc in 2002. She was last seen in a rebel video at the end of last year looking gaunt and despondent.
The Americans, three Defense Department contract workers, were captured in 2003 after their light aircraft crashed in the jungles while on a counternarcotics operation.
In Paris an aide to President Nicolas Sarkozy, asked about the news, said the presidency has no comment to make for the moment and that it could not confirm the news.
Ms Betancourt’s son Lorenzo Delloye-Betancourt called her release after six years of captivity, “if true, the most beautiful news of my life.”
The Farc, waging Latin America's oldest insurgency, has demanded that Colombian President Alvaro Uribe pull back troops from an area the size of New York City to facilitate talks.
Mr Uribe, popular at home for his tough stance against the rebels, refuses to accept that condition. But he has offered a smaller safe haven under international observation in an area where there are no armed forces or armed groups.
Because Ms Betancourt also holds French citizenship, France’s government has campaigned for her release. She turned 46 on Christmas Day.
The Americans were captured a year later when their drug surveillance plane went down. They worked for a Northrup Grumman as Pentagon contractors. They were the longest-held American hostages in the world.
Since their abduction, families of the US hostages have received only two “proof of life” videos, the latest in November.
That latest tape also showed the first images in years of Ms Betancourt, who hadn’t been seen since 2003.
The images, along with letters and reports from other hostages, described a once-vibrant, confident woman slowly succumbing to Hepatitis B, tropical skin diseases and depression.
One former hostage said Ms Betancourt was kept chained to a tree after trying to escape.
Ms Betancourt’s family waged a campaign for her freedom, organising marches and events in Colombia and France, where her case became a cause celebre.
Mr Sarkozy implored the Farc to free her and sent a mission to Colombia to try to gain access to her. He also urged Colombia’s government to contact the rebels.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez also tried to negotiate Ms Betancourt’s release as part of a prisoner swap.
But none of the efforts could bridge the gaps between the guerrillas and Mr Uribe, whose father was killed by the Farc and who made the group’s defeat the cornerstone of his presidency.
Colombia’s government even criticised the family for its efforts to raise Ms Betancourt’s public profile.
With all the interest in her, officials said, Ms Betancourt became too valuable a bargaining chip to be traded for anything less than a comprehensive deal. The family countered that its work had drawn attention to the plight of all Colombia’s kidnap victims.
Agencies