| 8 weeks 1 hour 4 min ago Rescued hostage Ingrid Betancourt returns to France
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(NECN: France) - Former hostage Ingrid Betancourt arrived in France to a hero's welcome on Friday after six years being held by leftist rebels in the Colombian jungle.
Betancourt said she "cried a lot during this time from pain and indignation."
Today, she said, "I cry with joy."
"It's a very, very moving moment for me: Breathing the air of France, being with you," Betancourt told supporters and reporters gathered on the windswept
tarmac.
"The military operation to which I owe my life and freedom was one of Intelligence. The extraordinary Colombian heroes who took part in the operation were not armed. Not a single bullet was fired, shot," she said of her rescue.
President Nicolas Sarkozy and first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy greeted the French-Colombian politician with hugs, kisses and broad smiles at the Villacoublay air base southwest of Paris.
The welcome was shown live on French television.
Betancourt's children and other family members also descended from the French government plane and joined their mother and the presidential couple on the
tarmac.
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