Colombian security forces rescue Betancourt and other hostages

Mr T

Senior Member
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The Colombian authorities say they have rescued Ingrid Betancourt and three Americans held by rebels in Colombia. Ms Betancourt, a French-Colombian politician, has been held for more than six years by the rebel Farc group and is said to be in very poor health. She is the group's highest-profile hostage and the French government has made securing her release a priority. The Farc group has been fighting to overthrow the Colombian government for more than 40 years.

Colombian Defence Minister Juan Manuel Santos said no-one had been hurt in Wednesday's operation in the southern province of Guaviare and that the hostages were in relatively good health. Ms Betancourt's son, Lorenzo Delloye-Betancourt, told reporters in Paris that her release was "the most beautiful news of my life" and that it had filled him with "an indescribable joy".

The Colombian military said some 15 hostages had been rescued in total, among them 11 members of the Colombian security forces who had been captured in various rebel attacks. The three Americans rescued were defence department contract workers captured after their light aircraft crashed in the Colombian jungle in 2003, the Colombian military said.

The BBC's Jeremy McDermott in Medellin says the successful operation by Colombian security forces is a political and military coup for the country's government. As such, it will relieve the pressure on President Alvaro Uribe to negotiate with the Farc - the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - allowing him to continue with his US-backed military offensive against the group, our correspondent says.

The Farc had hoped to exchange some 60 political hostages for hundreds of rebels held by the Colombian government, he adds, but with Ms Betancourt's rescue they have lost a powerful negotiating tool. The news is yet another blow to the once-mighty Farc, our correspondent adds, following the death of its legendary leader Manuel Marulanda in March, along with two other members of the guerrilla group's seven-man ruling body. The Farc still holds more than 40 hostages.

The news of Ms Betancourt's rescue will be welcomed by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who had made securing her release a foreign policy priority. The AFP news agency reports that the French president's office has confirmed Ms Betancourt's release. The BBC's Hugh Schofield in Paris says the news has been greeted with great joy in France, where Ms Betancourt's plight has excited huge public attention and sympathy.

Video pictures released last November of her looking gaunt and frail, as well as the accounts of released hostages that she was in danger of dying, all heightened the sense of urgency surrounding her fate, our correspondent adds. Ms Betancourt has dual citizenship as the result of marriage to a French diplomat - since dissolved - which produced two children, who have worked hard to keep her captivity in the spotlight.

The Vatican and the Spanish government have also welcomed news of her rescue, AFP reports.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner travelled to Latin America earlier this year to build ties with regional leaders who have been influential in securing hostage releases from Farc in the past.

Ms Betancourt was kidnapped in 2002. She is believed to suffer from serious liver problems.

Great work by Colombia. President Uribe's determination not to give in to FARC's demands has paid off big time. FARC isn't dead yet, but it is probably only a matter of time now. ;)
 
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Mr T

Senior Member
Here's another article with some detail of what happened. It looks like this is even more embarrassing for FARC than one might have thought before.

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Fifteen hostages, including former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt and three US military contractors, have been freed.

Colombia's Defence Minister Juan Manuel Santos made the announcement at a news conference. He said military spies tricked rebels into giving them up without a single injury. Mr Santos said the military intelligence agents infiltrated the guerrilla ranks 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.

Homer Simpson says, "DOH!" :D
 

Finn McCool

Captain
Registered Member
How could the local commander be so stupid as to allow his hostages to get into helicopters when FARC has no helicopters. News reports say that the Columbian commandos acted like humanitarian workers, but the FARC commander could not have believed that these "humanitarian workers" would actually transport hostages for him? That's what seems to be the major question here. Why would he even allow his hostages near the landing zone? A competent commander would not allow that to happen, and would see it as a government ruse or, even if it was real as an unacceptable security risk as the Columbians could certainly be tracking two Mi-17s that were over FARC territory.

Either there's more to this story (i.e. the FARC commander was told by the double agent that they were Venezuelan helicopters, I think that could be a possibilty) or the man was a total idiot and the Columbian Army got very very lucky.
 

Mr T

Senior Member
News reports say that the Columbian commandos acted like humanitarian workers, but the FARC commander could not have believed that these "humanitarian workers" would actually transport hostages for him?

I heard it was an "NGO" - maybe a group supposedly sympathetic to FARC that had chartered one or something.
 

Skywatcher

Captain
I wonder if Chavez played a role in this? Rumor is that he's gotten tired of FARC's assorted misdeeds and antics. On the other hand, even if he is, he's not going to go shouting about it, won't look good for the Bolivarian Revolution, I guess.
 

Mr T

Senior Member
I wonder if Chavez played a role in this?

If so I'm sure we would have heard about it within hours - he's a man that likes to blow his own trumpet even when he has done nothing of real worth.

The silence is telling.
 
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