PARIS — Arriving to a hero’s welcome in France, Ingrid Betancourt said Friday that she cried a lot during her six years as a prisoner in the Colombian jungle. Today, she said, “I cry with joy.”
French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife met the French-Colombian politician on the tarmac of an air base southwest of Paris, showering her with hugs, kisses and smiles.
Betancourt, 46, became a cause celebre in France after her abduction in 2002 while campaigning for Colombia’s presidency.
During her captivity by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, supporters across France held candlelight vigils and benefit concerts to attract world attention to her plight.
Her release in an ingenious Colombian military operation Wednesday was greeted in France with a flood of enthusiasm. Hundreds of people, some waving Colombian or French flags, many with cameras, lined up Friday behind police barriers around Paris’ Elysee presidential palace in hopes of catching a glimpse of her.
“France is my home, and you are my family,” Betancourt said in an address from the wind-swept runway broadcast live on French television.
Addressing the French people, she said their support and mobilization in her favor “saved my life.”
“I have cried a lot during this time from pain and indignation. Today, I cry with joy,” she said, her voice choked and eyes moist.
Sarkozy praised Betancourt as a beacon of hope for people in dire situations.
“All those, like you, who suffer throughout the world should know that . . . there is a light at the end of the tunnel,” said the French leader, flanked by his wife, former model Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, and Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner.
Speaking later at a reception in a gilded hall at the presidential palace, Betancourt urged Sarkozy to keep fighting for the liberation of the hostages still in the FARC’s hands, estimated by Colombia’s government to number about 700.
She was to undergo medical exams Saturday at Val-de-Grace military hospital in Paris. Betancourt already had a preliminary medical exam aboard the French government plane that flew her to Paris, but because she went through ill spells during her captivity, she said she wanted a thorough checkup.
