COLOMBIA:THE FRANCO-COLOMBIAN hostage Ingrid Betancourt was freed yesterday after more than six years in the jungle, writes Lara Marlowe.
"Tonight, Ingrid Betancourt is free," President Nicolas Sarkozy said in a televised announcement at 11.30pm Paris time. Flanked by Ms Betancourt's children, Mélanie and Lorenzo, Mr Sarkozy continued: "An ordeal of six years ends today.
"Ingrid is in good health. She is on a military base in Colombia. My first words are to say how happy we are." Ms Betancourt (48) was campaigning for the presidency of Colombia when she was kidnapped on February 23rd, 2002. The daughter of a former government minister and diplomat, she had turned on Colombia's ruling class to denounce their collusion with drug cartels. Her husband Juan-Carlos Lecompte named her tiny political party Oxygen.
Mélanie Delloye (22) spoke after Mr Sarkozy. "This is the moment we have waited for so long," she said. "We cannot wait to hold Mama in our arms. I want to thank President Sarkozy. Since he took things in hand, everything has moved quickly. We leave behind all these nightmare years of struggle."
"I feel immense joy, indescribable joy. It is the greatest joy of my life," said Lorenzo Delloye (19).
Both of Ms Betancourt's children spent their adolescence publicising their mother's plight. "If I died today, I would be satisfied with life, thanking God for my children," Ms Betancourt wrote from captivity in the jungle last year.
Mr Sarkozy said a French government jet would leave last night for Bogata, carrying Mélanie, Lorenzo and other members of Ms Betancourt's family, accompanied by the French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner.
Motorists hooted their horns in the streets of Bogata when Ms Betancourt's liberation was announced by Colombia's defence minister, Juan Manuel Santos. He said Colombian intelligence agents spent the last year planning the operation in Dan Jose del Guaviare, in the south-east of the country. Three American hostages and 11 Colombian soldiers were freed with her.
According to the defence minister, Colombian agents infiltrated the Revolutionary Armed Forces (Farc), the guerrilla group which held Ms Betancourt, and convinced her guards that the hostages' transfer was requested by the Farc's new leadership. The group's ageing founder, Manuel Marulanda, died recently. It numbers have dwindled from 15,000 to 10,000.
The army staged a bloodless commando raid with two helicopters, then flew the hostages to a military base near Bogata.
Ms Betancourt was doubtless the world's best known hostage. Even before her abduction, France was enchanted by the crusading politician with long hair and the face of a Madonna. Her autobiography, Until Death Do Us Part; My Struggle for Colombia, sold 300,000 copies in France.
On Tuesday Ms Betancourt's photograph was hung on the top of Mont Blanc. It has adorned the facade of the Paris town hall for years. On the night of his election in May 2007 President Nicolas Sarkozy pledged to seek her freedom. Last winter he offered to go to the Colombian-Venezuelan border to collect her if the Farc would free her. He last night reiterated the French government's offer of political asylum for Farc guerrillas.
The successful operation is a major victory for the Colombian president Alvaro Uribe, who was often criticised by Ms Betancourt's family for refusing to negotiate with the Farc. Mr Sarkozy telephoned Mr Uribe last night to congratulate him and thanked him in his television address.
It is also a boost for Mr Sarkozy, at the outset of France's presidency of the European Union. The French political class were unanimous in rejoicing in Ms Betancourt's freedom. Even the opposition socialists praised Mr Sarkozy's perseverance.
Ms Betancourt was reported to be near death in April, when Mr Sarkozy sent a rescue plane in the hope of obtaining her liberation. She is reported to be suffering from hepatitis B. The former prime minister Dominique de Villepin, a friend of Ms Betancourt since their days at Paris' Political Science Institute, attempted a similar rescue mission five years ago.
Last autumn Ms Betancourt wrote a heart-wrenching 12-page letter to her mother, Yolanda Pulecio, in which she told of living conditions in the jungle. She had stopped eating and sleeping. Her hair was falling out in handfuls.
The international network of Ingrid Betancourt support committees will tonight hold an open-air party in front of the Paris town hall to celebrate her freedom.