"Freed!"
Supporters of former hostage Ingrid Betancourt plastered the word in bold letters across an enormous portrait of the French-Colombian politician hanging from the Paris City Hall facade on Thursday, as the French capital reveled in her release from six years of captivity.
Chants of "Colombia! Colombia!" rose up from the crowd of thousands gathered on the historic square and city officials tossed confetti in the air. Grinning broadly, the Paris mayor embraced the Colombian ambassador. Cutting a more sober image, activists lined the City Hall steps with posters of other hostages still held in Colombia's jungle by leftist rebels of the FARC.
"Dear friends, she is free," Mayor Bertrand Delanoe said, as the throng cheered. "She has won again all her rights to life, to the love of her dear ones and to defend her convictions. ... Her freedom is our freedom."
Betancourt's captivity became a cause celebre in France, where she spent much of her childhood, where her own children now live and where, Betancourt said Thursday, she wants eventually to be laid to rest.
The former hostage was expected to arrive at a French air base Friday for an elaborate ceremony led by President Nicolas Sarkozy, who had publicly clamored for her released since his election night last year.
Betancourt was kidnapped by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia while campaigning for the Colombian presidency in 2002.
Her supporters built up a network of thousands across France and Europe in recent years, organizing frequent marches, candlelight vigils and other activities to keep alive the push to free her. Her portrait graced city halls around France and earlier this week, her picture was mounted atop Mont Blanc, the highest peak in the Alps.
She was freed in a Colombian army operation with 14 other hostages Wednesday. Sarkozy's chief of staff, Claude Gueant, told French TV that France "did not take part" in the daring Colombian operation.
"I want to tell President Sarkozy _ and through him all the French people _ that they were our support, our light," Betancourt said in an interview with the Colombian television station RCN on Thursday. "At the end of my life, I'd like them to bury me in France. I think I owe that to them. ... If I'm alive today, it's because of them."
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Associated Press writer Angela Doland contributed to this report.
