Colombia showed a video on Friday of the rescue of Ingrid Betancourt and 14 other hostages where their anger turned to ecstasy as theater-trained military agents duped and overpowered leftist rebels.
Betancourt, a French-Colombian politician who flew to a hero's welcome in Paris on Friday, appeared offended in the video at being handcuffed before boarding a helicopter. One of three American captives spat an insult into the camera. But moments later, the footage of Wednesday's daring rescue showed Betancourt on board the helicopter weeping, smiling and hugging fellow hostages as she was told she was free after six years in captivity at secret jungle camps. Cheering erupted in the background.
The first airing of the video - taken by a military agent posing as a journalist - revealed the shock of the freed hostages, whose raucous celebration rocked the helicopter so hard that Betancourt feared it would crash.
The bloodless operation brought the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, to the brink of defeat in its 44-year-old, cocaine-financed war for control of the country. In France, where President Nicolas Sarkozy had made her release a foreign policy priority and thousands had campaigned for her freedom for years, Betancourt thanked her supporters.
Betancourt lived in France in her youth and has dual nationality after a now-annulled marriage. After she was kidnapped, the French embraced her as one of their own, staging countless marches and demonstrations on her behalf for six years.