Daring Rescue, FARC Bluffed. Betancourt Rescue in Colombia was 'impeccable'

Colombian spies tricked leftist rebels into handing over kidnapped presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt and three U.S. military contractors Wednesday in a daring helicopter rescue so successful that not a single shot was fired.

Betancourt, who was seized on the campaign trail six long years ago, appeared thin but surprisingly healthy as she strode down the stairs of a military plane and held her mother in a long embrace.

"God, this is a miracle," Betancourt said. "Such a perfect operation is unprecedented."

Eleven Colombian police and soldiers were also freed in the most serious blow ever dealt to the 44-year-old Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, which considered the four hostages their most valuable bargaining chips. The FARC is already reeling from the deaths of key commanders and the loss of much of the territory it once held.

The Americans — Marc Gonsalves, Thomas Howes and Keith Stansell — were flown directly to the United States to reunite with their families and undergo tests and treatment at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas.

Nowhere in the world have American hostages currently in captivity been held longer, according to the U.S. Embassy in Bogota.

Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos said military intelligence agents infiltrated the guerrilla ranks and led the local commander in charge of the hostages, alias Cesar, to believe they were going to take them to Alfonso Cano, the guerrillas' supreme leader.

The hostages, who had been divided in three groups, were taken to a rendezvous where two disguised MI-17 helicopters piloted by Colombian military agents were waiting, one on the ground and another hovering above. Betancourt said her hands and feet were bound, which she called "humiliating."

At first she thought the pilots — a crew of four with nine "assistants" dressed in white — were from a relief organization. Then she saw their Che Guevara shirts and assumed they were rebels.

Only when they were airborne did she notice that Cesar, who had treated her so cruelly for so many years, was naked and blindfolded on the floor.

"The chief of the operation said, `We're the national army. You're free,'" she said. "The helicopter almost fell from the sky because we were jumping up and down, yelling, crying, hugging one another. We couldn't believe it."

The operation, Santos said, "will go into history for its audacity and effectiveness."

"We wanted to have it happen as it did today," added armed forces chief Gen. Freddy Padilla. "Without a single shot. Without anyone wounded. Absolutely safe and sound, without a scratch."

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe later led a celebratory news conference where he said his government isn't interested in "spilling blood" and urged the rebels to take a "path to peace."

This proves an operation of this caliber can be accomplished with such intelligence and with peace...not a drop of blood, not one shot. Bravo Columbian Government!