Ingrid Betancourt freed!

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The immeasurably fantastic news has broken this evening that French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt has been released from her six-year long captivity after an 'audacious' raid by the Colombian military.

Ms Betancourt was captured in 2002 while she was campaigning for the Colombian presidency in an area controlled by Marxist rebel group Farc. In November last year, Colombian police seized the first 'proof of life' images of Ms Betancourt since 2003, which showed her in a frail and dangerously ill condition. Earlier this year, her plight reached the front pages of national newspapers and of my very own blog, as Hugo Chavez stepped in to mediate between Farc and the Colombian government, amid fears that Ms Betancourt's health was failing fast.

Since I wrote that blog post, I had been massively disappointed to see no advancement in the negotiations to secure the release not only of Ingrid Betancourt, but also of as many as 700 other hostages held with her in the dense Colombian jungle. However, President Uribe of Colombia prides himself on his hard stance towards Farc (his own father was killed by the group), and he was not prepared to release political prisoners in exchange for Farc's high-profile hostages.

So news this evening that Colombian commandoes have engineered the rescue of 46-year old Ingrid Betancourt, American captives Marc Gonsalves, Thomas Howes and Keith Stansell, and 11 other Colombian hostages is certainly a remarkable feat and an enormous coup for the Colombian police's GUALA anti-kidnapping squad.

Exact reports of how they undertook this raid remain sketchy. What seems certain is that Colombian military commandoes were able to infiltrate the Farc group in jungle near the city of San José del Guaviare. Some reports say that these commandoes were able to convince the group to hand over the hostages without bloodshed. Other reports suggest that undercover commandoes tricked the rebels into thinking they were transporting the hostages to a new Farc location, whereas they really flew them by helicopter to a military base, and then back to Bogotá.

What is certain is that no lives were lost and that Ingrid Betancourt really IS back in Bogotá and is alive, though not so well. Concerns remain about her suffering from Hepatitis B, and serious liver and skin conditions, and she will be put under medical observation immediately.

Amid the long overdue celebrations, let us spare a thought for the hundreds who remain in Farc captivity. Knowing Farc's history as I do, I fear that they will exact ruthless reprisals on the hostages who will remain, in the knowledge that they will have to be seen to increase their brutality if they are to compensate for the loss of their most valuable bargaining chip. UN human rights groups have actually been lobbying with the Colombian government to ask them to stop their armed rescue missions, for fear that these missions will ultimately lead to the deaths and torture of more people than they will save.

In the meantime, however, let us hope that Ingrid Betancourt makes a full and speedy recovery, and can soon be reunited with her family who have campaigned so tirelessly for her release on both sides of the Atlantic. Even imagining spending six years in captivity in the jungle is impossible. We can sympathise but never empathise with the mental torture, and reports that Ingrid Betancourt has spent much of her time chained to a tree after an escape attempt add to the horror. Reports from her presidential running-mate Clara Rojas, captured at the same time and released earlier this year, said that Betancourt was fast losing the will to live, so thank goodness this rescue has come when it has.

Who knows, maybe one day, health-permitting, she will be able to rejoin the front line of Colombian politics, and lead the fight against the rebels. Colombia should be heralded as the home of Gabriel García Márquez and Fernando Botero, not of cocaine and guerilla militia. Here's hoping that can be restored.

¡Viva Ingrid Betancourt! Que usted se mejore pronto.