Mission impossible in the jungle

Tag : long coat
a group, and her country's government.

Along with 13 other hostages, her hands were bound with whiteplastic cuffs as she was shepherded towards the waiting aircraft.Angry and upset, she refused a coat they offered as they told hershe was going to a colder climate. With the bizarre scene beingcaptured on video an American hostage, Keith Stansell, annoyed atbeing restrained, leaned toward the camera and shouted an expletivebefore getting on board.

Behind them was Gerardo Aguila Ramirez, alias Cesar, the Farc localcommander who apparently had been ordered by his high command toassemble three groups of hostages at the clearing as part of aprisoner swap. He had been in control of Betancourt's fate for fouryears.

Jumping on board the helicopter, which he believed was flying to arendezvous with his guerrilla boss, he modestly refused to grantthe video team an interview. What happened next will go down inannals of hostage rescue operations.

Not long after the group was airborne, Betancourt turned around andsaw Cesar blindfolded and stripped naked on the floor. Then camethe words she had been waiting so long to hear. "We're the nationalarmy," said one of the crewmen. "You're free."

The helicopter team, posing as a sympathetic rebel group and a TVcrew, were Colombian commandos who had pulled off one of the mostaudacious rescue operations in history.

In the film, Betancourt, the former presidential candidatekidnapped in 2002, is seen joyfully hugging William Perez, an armycorporal and fellow hostage she later credited for nursing herthrough her jungle illnesses. "We waited 10 years for you!"exclaims Perez, who was captured by Farc in 1998.

This weekend, 46-year-old Betancourt is back "breathing the air" ofFrance, where she was brought up before emigrating to Columbia andentering national politics, and where she earned the nickname'Colombia's Joan of Arc'. After her release on Wednesday and beingreunited with her family, she was flown to Europe for a hero'swelcome from President Nicolas Sarkozy. Her fellow hostages,including three American contractors, were also all back home