Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces

Arriving to a hero's welcome in France, Ingrid Betancourt said Friday that she cried a lot "from pain and indignation" during her six years as a prisoner in the Colombian jungle, but now her tears are ones of joy. French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife met the French-Colombian politician on the tarmac of an air base outside Paris, showering her with hugs, kisses and smiles. Sarkozy made freeing Betancourt a priority when he was elected in May 2007.

Pardon Patricia Nieto if she wasn't swept up in the euphoria that lifted this nation after the recent rescue of 15 hostages held by leftist guerrillas. The rebel group the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, which was tricked into giving up long-held hostages, including presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt and three U.S. defense contractors, is still holding 700 people, including Nieto's husband, Sigifredo Lopez.

Not a single one of his 2,224 days in captivity went by without Fernando Araujo thinking of escaping his captors. When his opportunity finally came amid the gunfire and chaos of a New Year's Eve military attack against the leftist rebels who were holding him, he took it.

Mayor Cielo Gonzalez's house looks like a Marine outpost in Fallouja, buttressed by stacks of sandbags to absorb any blasts. She travels with 10 gun-toting guards, and recently received a gift from President Alvaro Uribe: the most heavily armored SUV in Colombia. "I am often very afraid or very bored," said Gonzalez, a tall, athletic 38-year-old. "The guerrillas have made me a prisoner."

A Colombian police officer who fled to freedom after eight years as a hostage said leftist rebels held him with three American military contractors and former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt. Jhon Pinchao Blanco escaped the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, near the southeastern town of Mitu. He walked for 17 days in the jungle before running into a narcotics patrol, said police spokesman Sgt. Alberto Cantillo.

An alleged international arms dealer accused of arming militants from Iraq to Nicaragua for decades has been arrested on U.S. charges of conspiring to supply Colombian rebels with millions of dollars' worth of weapons, federal authorities said Friday. Monzer Kassar of Marbella, Spain, and codefendants Tareq Mousa Ghazi and Luis Felipe Moreno Godoy were arrested Thursday as they prepared to complete a transaction to pay for the weapons, federal officials said.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Friday that he expected to meet soon in Caracas with a leader of Colombia's largest rebel group in an effort to help secure the release of dozens of hostages the leftists are holding.

The Red Cross on Sunday handed to forensic experts 11 bodies believed to be the remains of Colombian lawmakers killed in rebel captivity, as authorities tried to end a bitter dispute over how the men died. The killing of the legislators underscored the plight of hostages held for years by Latin America's oldest left-wing insurgency, among them French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt and three American contract workers.

Colorful banners bearing mayoral candidate Julio Cesar Marentes' smiling visage are still festooned around this tiny coffee-growing town even though he was killed by leftist rebels three weeks ago. Marentes is one of 15 mayoral and city council candidates killed since August by armed groups across Colombia in advance of nationwide elections Oct. 28, when 1,098 municipalities will elect mayors and city council members. Also up for a vote are 32 governorships.

It was on a routine patrol that the Colombian coast guard stumbled upon an eerie outpost amid the mangroves: a mini-shipyard where suspected drug traffickers were building submarines. Perched on a makeshift wooden dry dock late last month were two 55-foot-long fiberglass vessels, one ready for launch, the other about 70% complete.