Audacious Colombian hostage rescue

Ex-presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, rescued from six years of captivity in the Colombian jungle, says she feels "blessed by God".According to reports, Farc rebels were tricked into handing over the French national as well as Americans Marc Gonsalves, Thomas Howes and Keith Stansell and 11 Colombian police and soldiers, some of whom had been held for a dozen years.Not a single shot was fired in the dramatic rescue mission by military intelligence officers in a complex operation.Abducted in February 2002 and held by Farc, Ms Betancourt had not been seen since looking frail in video pictures released last year. The Americans were captured a year later when their drug surveillance plane went down in the jungle.The news is a coup for President Alvaro Uribe, an anti-guerrilla hardliner who has used billions of dollars in US aid to push the rebels onto the defensive.Ms Betancourt, wearing a floppy camouflage hat as she arrived in the Colombian capital Bogota, hugged her mother, Yolanda Pulecio, and her husband, Juan Carlos LeCompte. Her sister and two children - who live with her ex-husband in France - are due to arrive from France for a reunion.Ms Betancourt broke into tears several times - first on arrival and later at a press conference with President Uribe - against whom she was running when she was kidnapped - saying he "has been a very good president."She said: "I believe in a path of peace for Colombia and I feel so blessed by God to have lived through this moment, because this was an operation of peace, not an operation of war."Defence Minister Juan Manuel Santos said: "This was an unprecedented operation. It will go down in history for its audaciousness and effectiveness."The audacious mission involved months of intelligence gathering, dozens of helicopters on standby and a strong dose of deceit - the rebels shoved the captives, their hands bound, onto a white unmarked MI-17 helicopter, believing they were being transferred to another guerrilla camp.President Uribe said: "We did not fire against the group of guerrillas who remained on the ground for various reasons. First, we were interested in freeing the hostages, not spilling blood."Secondly, there are compatriots who remain kidnapped and we wanted to send a message, not with words, but with facts, so that those compatriots are treated well and are returned to freedom, it was also because of that that we did not fire," he added.Congratulations swarmed in for President Uribe and his military from around the world, including from French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who had made Ms Betancourt's liberation a priority of state.Farc, once a 17,000-strong force able to attack cities and kidnap victims at will, has been driven back into remote areas and now has about 9,000 combatants.It is the most serious blow ever dealt to the 44-year-old organisation, which is already reeling from the recent deaths of key commanders and thousands of defections after withering pressure from Colombia's US-trained and advised armed forces.In March, co-founder leader Manuel Marulanda died of a reported heart attack, and two other top commanders were killed, one by a turncoat bodyguard.

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ITN | July 3, 2008

Tags:. .tears. .liberation. .keith. .path. .marc