AP
Last updated: 7:10 am
July 3, 2008
Posted: 3:39 am
July 3, 2008
BOGOTA, Colombia - Colombia freed Ingrid Betancourt and three US military contractors from leftist guerrillas yesterday after military spies tricked rebels into giving them up, the defense minister said.
In Paris, the French-Colombian politician's son, Lorenzo Delloye-Betancourt, called her release after six years of captivity, "the most beautiful news of my life."
Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos said the military-intelligence agents infiltrated the guerrilla ranks and led the local commander to believe they were going to take the hostages by helicopter to Alfonso Cano, the guerrillas' leader.
Surrounded by commandos, the guerrillas surrendered, and the helicopters took the hostages to a military base in Guaviare.
Betancourt, 46, was abducted in February 2002 as she was running for president. Americans Marc Gonsalves, Thomas Howes and Keith Stansell were captured a year later when their drug-surveillance plane went down. They were the longest-held US hostages anywhere in the world.
