Colombian Kudos

July 3, 2008 | Wall Street Journal

If most world news seems depressing these days, consider the exception of Colombia. Yesterday, the Colombian military rescued Ingrid Betancourt and three American contractors who had been held hostage by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) for more than five years.

Chalk up one more antiterror win for Colombian President Álvaro Uribe, the best U.S. ally in South America. Also freed in the operation were 11 other FARC hostages. News of the successful rescue came only a short time after John McCain had left Cartagena after his visit this week to tout a free-trade agreement with Colombia that Barack Obama opposes.

The three Americans had been doing drug interdiction work in 2003, and were taken hostage in the state of Meta when their plane went down. Ms. Betancourt was a minor presidential candidate in 2002. When she took her campaign into a guerrilla stronghold, against the advice of the military and the government, the FARC grabbed her. Because she is also a French citizen, her case became popular in Paris and a political cause for French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Mr. Uribe did everything he could to win a negotiated settlement, even freeing a high-level FARC comandante at the behest of Mr. Sarkozy. But Mr. Uribe refused to abandon the hard-won gains of his military over the past six years by surrendering territory to the rebels, which was their key demand. For this he was assailed by his political adversaries and Mr. Sarkozy. Democrats in Washington also got into the act, working behind the scenes to put pressure on the Colombian government.

Having dealt with the rebels for so many years, Mr. Uribe knew better than to count on the FARC negotiating in good faith. His determination has now paid off in a dramatic hostage rescue without paying any further political ransom.