The most awaited news for any Colombian: ex-presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt was rescued from her captors, after being held by Colombian guerilla FARC since 2002.

Better even, she was not simply released by her captors in exchange for ransom, but she was rescued by the Colombian military in a planned operation.
Another merit was that not only was Betancourt rescued but three Americans and eleven Colombian soldiers of a total of over one hundred captive officers being held for many years.

Besides the humanitarian reasons of giving back life and freedom to those kidnapped, for Colombia such news constitutes a relief.

For years Colombia endured pressures from the French government and international humanitarian organizations that advocated for a humanitarian exchange aimed at releasing Betancourt who was also a French citizen.

Such prisoner exchange with imprisoned guerrilla stagnated for no other reason than the government’s rejection to clearing a strategic zone in the southwest of the country as requested by the guerrilla.

The most simple reason was:  This region was ideal for drug and arms trafficking on the part of a guerrilla also engaged in drug dealings, and now weakened by the passing away of its historic leader “Tirofijo”, by the blows inflicted by the military, and the desertion of some rebels, peasants that saw themselves surrounded, whom long ago lost any political and revolutionary ideals.

It is also understandable this reluctance, given that the former Colombian administration of President Andrés Pastrana de-militarized a zone in the jungle as part of the peace conversations, the aftermath of which was only frustration and indignation upon seeing how the guerrillas simply did as they pleased in what they turned into their own kingdom.

This rescue is a relief, since Colombians were forced to put up with Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president using the Betancourt issue to present himself as a hero of an eventual release, trying to humiliate the Colombian government and attempting to overshadow his own internal struggles in Venezuela.

This is why this rescue is the best news for president Alvaro Uribe, whom no doubt comes out strengthened, it what has been the greatest blow against the already weakened drug-guerrilla FARC.