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Uribe should soften his tone with FARC: Betancourt Mon Jul 7, 2008 2:58pm EDT PARIS (Reuters) - Colombian President Alvaro Uribe should soften his tone when dealing with the Marxist FARC guerrillas, freed hostage Ingrid Betancourt said on Monday, urging him to break with the language of "hatred". Betancourt was rescued last week after more than six years in the jungle as a captive of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), in an operation that was widely seen as a vindication of Uribe's hardline stance against the guerrillas. The FARC is still holding hundreds of captives and Betancourt, who...

Excerpt - American spy planes carrying sophisticated jamming equipment blocked frantic attempts by a Colombian rebel commander to contact his superiors about last week's hostage handover, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt. ~ snip ~

This video of the release of the 15 hostages, including 3 Americans, was taken by Colombian special forces on July 2, 2008.

Video link

Leaders of the Colombian FARC rebel movement were paid millions of dollars to free Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt and 14 other hostages, Swiss radio said on Friday, quoting 'a reliable source'. The 15 hostages released on Wednesday by the Colombian army 'were in reality ransomed for a high price, and the whole operation afterwards was a set-up,' the radio's French-language channel said. Saying the United States, which had three of its citizens among those freed, was behind the deal, it put the price of the ransom at some $20 million. The radio said its source was 'close to the events,...

July 3, 2008 Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos said Colombian military intelligence managed to infiltrate the top hierarchy of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia and arrange for a transfer of hostages purportedly to be handed over to Alfonso Cano, the rebel group's top leader. A government mole arranged for the hostages to be brought from three locations to one camp, then taken to a helicopter the FARC believed belonged to a friendly aid group that would take the hostages to Cano. Instead, the chopper was a military helicopter piloted by intelligence officers who whisked a total of 15 hostages...

You will REALLY enjoy this 2-minute clip. Great little short mini-documentary showing the release yesterday of the Colombian and American hostages who had been kidnapped years ago by pro-Communist, pro-Che Guevara FARC guerillas.The former Presidential Candidate, (female), lead hostage and one of the main speakers on the airport tarmac, profusely thanks the pro-US President Uribe, and then, rolling her eyes still in disbelief, says she was "amazed by the BRILLIANCE of the Army of Colombia" in their plan to seize the hostages, faking as if they were leftists rebels themselves.Another of the liberated, a man, shouts, LONG LIVE LIBERTY! and...

MEXICO CITY—Senator John McCain congratulated President Alvaro Uribe of Colombia on Wednesday for the Colombian government’s rescue of 15 hostages, including three Americans, held by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, a Marxist-inspired insurgency that Mr. McCain repeatedly criticized this week during a trip to Latin America. “This is great news,” Mr. McCain told reporters on his campaign plane enroute to Mexico City from Cartagena, Colombia, after Mr. Uribe called Mr. McCain in the air to inform him of the success of the operation. “Thank God they are released.” The timing of the rescue, which occurred while Mr....

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and top military officials addressed the country late Wednesday to explain the daring rescue operation to freed former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt and 14 other hostages held by leftist rebels...

Colombian security forces rescued the French-Colombian politician, 11 Colombian police and three US intelligence operatives in an operation in the eastern jungle province of Guaviare which saw the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) lose their negotiating trump cards. The guerrillas were holding almost 60 political hostages, whom they want to exchange for hundreds of rebels in prison. General Freddy Padilla, Colombia's armed forces commander, said it was high-level military intelligence that assured the safe rescue of the hostages. "We have infiltrated the Secretariat (Farc's ruling seven-man body) and military intelligence gave us the location of the hostages," said Gen...

Colombia says rescues Betancourt, Americans 02 Jul 2008 19:18:25 GMT Source: Reuters BOGOTA, July 2 (Reuters) - Colombia said on Wednesday it rescued three Americans and French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt from leftist guerrillas who had held them for years in secret jungle camps.

<p>BOGOTA (Reuters) - French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt, three Americans and 11 other hostages were rescued from leftist guerrillas by Colombian troops on Wednesday after years in captivity, the government said.</p>

The Colombian military said today it has rescued 15 hostages from a leftist guerrilla group, including three American defense contractors and former Colombia presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt. Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos told a news conference in Bogota that all the rescued hostages are in reasonably good health after being held for years in jungle camps by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as FARC. Eleven of those rescued are members of the Colombian army and police. The three Americans -- Keith Stansell, Marc Gonsalves and Thomas Howes -- were conducting an aerial surveillance mission as part of...

14:20 | The Colombian Minister of Defense Juan Manuel Santos reported that the army had rescued 15 hostages, among them the former presidential candidate and three US citizens, during a military operation called "Operation Check". Bogotá (EFE) .- The Colombian army rescued safe and sound ex-presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, three US citizens, and eleven soldiers held hostage by FARC in Guaviare department (south), announced today Minister of Defense Juan Manuel Santos. The minister said in a press conference that the French-Colombian former presidential candidate, held captive since February of 2002, and US citizens Thomas Howes, Keith Stansell and Marc Gonsalves,...

Excerpt - BOGOTA, March 28 (Reuters) - Colombia will free hundreds of guerrilla fighters if rebel leaders release politician Ingrid Betancourt, who is in ill health after being held hostage for years in secret jungle camps, the government said. President Alvaro Uribe signed a decree late on Thursday allowing the massive release of guerrillas from jail if French-Colombian Betancourt, kidnapped during her 2002 presidential campaign and ailing from hepatitis B, is set free, Peace Commissioner Luis Carlos Restrepo told reporters. The decree was a bid to speed up efforts at swapping rebel-held politicians, police and soldiers for jailed guerrillas after...

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - A single laptop can reveal much, and so it is with the digital treasure chest that Colombian commandos found in the jungle quarters of slain rebel leader Raul Reyes. Files in the computer seized in Saturday's raid into Ecuador that claimed the lives of Reyes and 23 of his comrades offer an intimate portrait of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's desire to undermine Colombia's U.S.-allied government. If authentic, the documents show that sympathies Chavez first aired publicly in January grew out of a relationship that dates back more than a decade. But Chavez is not one of...

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - Colombian rebels on Wednesday provided a pickup location for two women they have held hostage for years, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said, and the Colombian government gave him the green light to launch a rescue mission. Chavez said the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, sent him the coordinates to pick up Clara Rojas—an aide to former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt—and former congresswoman Consuelo Gonzalez. A previous Venezuelan-led mission to free the hostages failed just over a week ago. -snip-

Excerpt - CARACAS, Jan 3 (Reuters) - Venezuelan helicopters chugged home empty from Colombia on Thursday after a failed mission to pick up hostages held by Marxist guerrillas, a new defeat for President Hugo Chavez who is still smarting from a tough year. The four helicopters marked with Red Cross symbols flew back to Venezuela from the Colombian town of Villavicencio without the hostages they had left to collect from a jungle region. After several diplomatic spats and a sobering defeat in a referendum on whether he be allowed to run for reelection indefinitely, the leftist Chavez nearly ended 2007...

via machine translation - Bogota present evidence of life of Ingrid Betancourt and three Americans HOSTAGES. The Colombian government has made public Friday evidence-videos, photographs and letters showing that 16 hostages of the Colombian guerrilla, whose Franco-Colombienne Ingrid Betancourt and three Americans were alive. A video that was broadcast without the soundtrack by television Colombian Ingrid Betancourt demonstrated in extreme thinness, and chained hands crossed, head down and apparently quite tired. Ingrid Betancourt who was in pants and a blue shirt, remained silent. She has very long hair tied up on the shoulder. The hostage, kidnapped on February 23, 2002...

Cuban independent journalist Armando Betancourt Reina, in jail since May 2006 when he was arrested while covering a story, was released from prison Monday, presumably because he had completed his 15-month sentence for being a "public disorder." Committee to Protect Journalists has the story: New York, August 21, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes Monday’s release of independent Cuban journalist Armando Betancourt Reina, who had been imprisoned at the Cerámica Roja Prison in the central city of Camagüey since May 2006. Betancourt Reina, a reporter for the independent news agency Nueva Prensa Cubana, left prison Monday morning, reported the U.S.-based...