Ingrid Betancourt

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.

Ingrid Betancourt is a rare politician whose personal ordeal made her a heroine in two countries, a charismatic idealist whose endurance through six years of captivity created a shared sympathy between her native Colombia and France, where she grew up and held dual citizenship. News that Betancourt had been rescued from her Marxist-rebel captors sparked celebrations in both countries.

Ingrid Betancourt, whose plight in captivity came to embody Colombia's fratricidal social strife, embraced her grown children for the first time in more than six years Thursday and prepared for a trip to Paris and a state welcome in France.

Colombia said that France would be willing to receive former guerrilla fighters as part of a possible deal to free scores of rebel hostages, including ailing French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt. The proposal is part of a package of offers President Alvaro Uribe has made to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, in an effort to prompt rebels to free kidnapping victims held for as long as 10 years in secret jungle camps. Uribe last week urged FARC fighters to accept offers of cash rewards and reduced jail terms for abandoning rebel ranks and handing over hostages.

Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and French First Lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy joined several thousand marchers who rallied in Paris to demand freedom for kidnapped Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt. Betancourt, a French-Colombian citizen, was taken hostage by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, in 2002 while campaigning for Colombia's presidency. Similar demonstrations were organized in about 10 other French cities.

France called off a humanitarian mission to treat and possibly free ailing hostage Ingrid Betancourt after Colombian rebels said they wouldn't unilaterally release any more captives. The French Foreign Ministry said there was no longer any reason to proceed with the mission by France, Spain and Switzerland in Colombia. A French government plane has been waiting on a Bogota airstrip for days with doctors hoping to reach Betancourt, who was said to be depressed and suffering from hepatitis B.

President Alvaro Uribe has scrapped his plan to rerun the 2006 election in which he was reelected, the government said, a move that could set the stage for him to seek a third term in 2010. Uribe said last month that he would try to repeat the vote after the Supreme Court ruled that the constitutional amendment that allowed him to run for and win a second term was tainted by corruption. He has now dropped that plan. Uribe's popularity shot up to 91% after this month's dramatic rescue of 15 rebel-held hostages, including French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt.

People here share a memory of Ingrid Betancourt. On a night just over two years ago, the nation watched as the freshman representative from Bogota took the floor of Congress to argue for the impeachment of President Ernesto Samper. In those two hours, she became the most recognizable congressional figure to emerge from a campaign finance scandal that shook Samper's presidency.