Celebrations as Betancourt returns
After a reunion with her family, the freed hostage arrives back in France.
President Nicolas Sarkozy will welcome freed French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt when she arrives in France this afternoon.
Betancourt, 46, is to return to Paris after being reunited with her family following a daring rescue mission by the Colombian military that ended her six-year captivity.
Sarkozy will meet Betancourt and her family at Villacoublay military airport west of Paris, his office said.
They will later travel to the Elysée Palace where they will be received along with members of her support committee.
Sarkozy had made the release of Betancourt, who was abducted by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in February 2002 while campaigning for the Colombian presidency, a foreign policy priority.
However his first attempt to retrieve her, sending a medical team into the Colombian jungle to negotiate directly with the Farc in April failed.
Yesterday he sent a presidential plane to Bogota to allow Betancourt's children to be reunited with their mother.
France did not take part in the Colombian military operation to free Betancourt and 14 other hostages held by Farc, Sarkozy's top aide Claude Gueant said.
Prime minister François Fillon has accused former Socialist presidential candidate Ségolène Royal of ‘lacking dignity’ after she stated that Sarkozy had nothing to do with the rescue and was just trying to score political points.
“She’s like a little girl in a playground,” he said.
He added that Royal should listen to her ex-partner François Hollande, the head of the socialists, “who behaves like a statesman”.
Photo: Afp Rodrigo Arangua
