BOGOTA, Colombia -- Colombia freed Ingrid Betancourt and three U.S. military contractors from leftist guerrillas Wednesday after military spies tricked rebels into giving them up without a single injury, the defence minister said.
The rescue is the most serious blow ever dealt to the 44-year-old Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, which considered the four hostages their most valuable bargaining chips. The FARC is already reeling from the deaths of key commanders and the loss of much of the territory it once held.
Eleven Colombian soldiers and police also were freed as their guerrilla captors gave up without a fight, Defence Minister Juan Manuel Santos said.
In Paris, the son of the former French-Colombian presidential candidate, Lorenzo Delloye-Betancourt, called her release after six years of captivity, "if true, the most beautiful news of my life." He said he would fly to Colombia "very soon" for a reunion.
The Americans -- Marc Gonsalves, Thomas Howes and Keith Stansell -- were being flown to the United States from a military base in central Colombia, Santos said. He called the operation unprecedented and said it "will go into history for its audacity and effectiveness."
Santos said the military intelligence agents infiltrated the guerrilla ranks and led the local commander in charge of the hostages, alias Cesar, to believe they were going to take them by helicopter to Alfonso Cano, the guerrillas' supreme leader.
Betancourt, 46, was abducted in February 2002 as she was running for president.
-- The Associated Press
PREVIOUS
