Bogota - Former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, three US contractors and 11 military and police officers held hostage by Colombian leftist rebels were rescued Wednesday by Colombian military forces.
Colombian-French former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt prays upon her arrival to the Militar Airport of CATAM in Bogota, Colombia on 02 July 2008. EPA/LEONARDO MUÑOZ
Colombian troops posing as fellow rebels apparently tricked the captors, a unit of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), into transferring the hostages into their custody, allowing them to helicopter the captives to freedom.
'The operation was perfect,' Betancourt said late Wednesday, in her first comments on arriving at the Catam military base near Bogota.
Colombian President Alvaro Uribe described the so-called Operation Jaque as 'epic,' and stressed 'there was never any improvisation' but that 'everything was meticulously prepared.'
Alongside the country's military leadership and all the rescued hostages except the three US citizens - who were already en route to the United States, - Uribe delivered a televised address to explain the operation.
Operation Jaque, which lasted just over 22 minutes, was the result of an infiltration of guerrilla structures, Colombian authorities stressed.
The breathtaking success of the mission was quickly hailed as a devastating blow to FARC, which already lost three members of its seven-person leadership council earlier this year, including the guerilla group's founder and chief.
Betancourt, 46, was kidnapped on February 23, 2002. She holds dual French-Colombian citizenship and was FARC's highest-profile hostage.
Dressed in military fatigues and a grey T-shirt and apparently in relatively good health, Betancourt was the first freed captive to exit the plane that landed in the Colombian capital.
She first hugged her mother, Yolanda Pulecio, who had lobbied tirelessly for her daughter's release. Betancourt was then reunited with her husband, Juan Carlos Lecompte, while her children Lorenzo and Melanie, who live in France, were expected in Bogota Thursday.
Smiling profusely and visibly moved, she thanked her family and very explicitly praised Uribe and Defence Minister Juan Manuel Santos, whom she hailed for his 'audacity.'
Addressing a crowd of wellwishers and journalists on the runway, Betancourt described the rescue operation at length.
The handcuffed captives themselves were taken in by the military's ruse, she said, believing they were being subjected to another transfer among remote rebel bases, only for the government troops to reveal their identities after the doors were closed and the aircraft was aloft.
'The helicopter almost went down, because we jumped, we shouted, we wept, we hugged each other,' Betancourt said.
Santos said that the captors had intended to move the hostages by air over rough terrain, believing they had hired a helicopter from what turned out to be a front company. The Colombian Army aircraft was white to look like a civilian helicopter, instead of military green.
The rescue took place in Guaviare province in south-eastern Colombian and led to the capture of two FARC members, Santos said.
Uribe said the military left some 60 rebels on the ground when the helicopter lifted off with the hostages.
'We had taken the decision not to shoot them. We were interested in rescuing the kidnapped,' he noted.
Santos said that the military achieved the successful rescue after many months of planning with the help of a mole, who infiltrated FARC's hierarchy.
The operation was carried out by a helicopter crew of four, plus nine commandos posing as guerillas. Some where described as wearing Che Guevara T-shirts.
Dozens of military helicopters were said to have been on standby nearby for a 'plan B' in case anything went awry.
'It is an unprecedented operation that will go down in history for its audacity and effectiveness,' Santos said, praising the professionalism of the Colombian Armed Forces.
Colombian government spokesman Cesar Velasquez said that no one died in the operation, which was completed 'without even one bullet' being fired.
Colombian President Alvaro Uribe was informed of the successful operation soon after 1800 GMT, and then flew to Bogota. Uribe had met with US Republican presidential candidate John McCain on Tuesday in Cartagena, Colombia.
The three US contractors, Thomas Howes, Keith Stansell and Marc Gonsalves, were taken prisoner by FARC in February 2003, after their small plane on an anti-drug surveillance mission crashed in southern Colombia. They were immediately flown home to the United States and did not address journalists Wednesday.
US President George W Bush spoke with Uribe Wednesday to congratulate him. White House National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said that the United States was involved in the planning of the rescue and provided support to the Colombian military.
Santos acknowledged US support in a broadcast interview, but said that it was 'a Colombian operation, 100 per cent.'
The FARC had hoped to exchange Betancourt, the three US military contractors and scores of other Colombian hostages, including government troops and police officers, for FARC rebels in government custody.
The families of the captives - particularly Betancourt's mother and children - had long rejected the Colombian government strategy of seeking to free hostages by force. The families claimed that would be too risky for their loved ones, because the rebels were believed to have orders to kill hostages in the event of rescue attempts.
During her first hours of freedom, Betancourt on Wednesday made it clear that for the hostages themselves, armed rescue 'was an option that was less bad than kidnapping.' She thanked Uribe for having 'taken the risk to do it.'
Santos noted that the families of the hostages were not consulted in advance, in an effort not to endanger the operation.
'The risk for the kidnapped was always minimal,' Santos stressed.
WOW!Jul 3rd, 2008 - 19:43:48
I hope I don't ever get to play poker with Defence Minister Juan Manuel Santos.
Brilliant, absolutely brilliant! 10/10
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