France, Colombia and the United States rejoice in hostages’ release
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There are more dispatches from our staff around the world this morning on the rescue of 15 hostages in Colombia yesterday.
Geraldine Baum and Anne-Marie O’Connor of the L.A. Times report from Paris on the rescue of Ingrid Betancourt, the French-Colombian former presidential candidate.
‘Ingrid Betancourt is a rare politician whose personal ordeal made her a heroine in two countries, a charismatic idealist whose endurance through six years of captivity created a shared sympathy between her native Colombia and France, where she grew up and held dual citizenship,’ they write.
Meanwhile, Erika Hayasaki in New York reports on the three American hostages who were among those liberated yesterday. She focuses on Jo Rosano, mother of Marc Gonsalves, who was one of the three American employees of Northrop Grumman Corp. taken hostage after their plane developed engine trouble and crashed during a drug surveillance mission in southern Colombia in February 2003.
‘Rosano, a Bristol resident, had traveled to Colombia three times seeking her son’s release and has visited Washington a dozen times to beg lawmakers to help. ‘In September, she met with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe at the United Nations,’ she writes. And here’s how the Colombian newspaper El Heraldo covered Betancourt’s reunion with her children. -- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City