INGRID Betancourt, the freed Colombian politician, said she owed her life to France as President Nicolas Sarkozy gave her a hero's welcome to Paris.
The former Colombian presidential candidate, who holds dual French nationality, told journalists she was "crying with joy" when she stepped off a French presidential flight from Bogota at Villacoublay airbase near Paris yesterday.
Ms Betancourt,
46, – a cause célèbre in France – looked radiant as she stepped on to the tarmac amid loud applause to meet Mr Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bruni, who both embraced her warmly.
Mr Sarkozy, who had made Ms Betancourt's release a top priority of his presidency, said: "Ingrid Betancourt, welcome. France loves you."
Ms Betancourt responded: "I am so happy to breathe the air of France. I owe France everything. You saved my life."
Ms Betancourt paid a personal tribute to Mr Sarkozy. She said: "This extraordinary, perfect operation by the Colombian army... is also the result of your struggle," she said, adding that France staunchly opposed any armed "military operation that would put the hostages' lives in danger."
However, opponents point out that Mr Sarkozy had pushed for negotiations with the Farc, not a military operation.
Once it emerged that France had no role in the operation to free Ms Betancourt, one of his main political rivals — former Socialist presidential candidate Ségolène Royal —
said "Nicolas Sarkozy had absolutely nothing to do with this liberation."
Ms Betancourt was freed on Wednesday with three US hostages and 11 Colombians in a daring Colombian military operation in which the Farc was tricked into believing its commander had ordered them to be moved by helicopter.
The full article contains 285 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
