The question behind Betancourt’s rescue

The rescue by Colombian troops of the French-Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt in yesterday's audacious raid on a jungle camp marks the latest, possibly fatal, blow to FARC, Latin America's oldest insurgency.

"God, this is a miracle... There is no historical precedent for such a perfect operation," Betancourt told reporters after soldiers posing as members of a fictitious non-government organisation had flown the hostages and their guerrilla guards out of Guaviare in disguised helicopters, tricking the guerillas into believing they had been called to a meeting with rebel leader Alfonso Cano. "This is a sign of peace for Colombia, that we can find peace," sobbed Betancourt.

Also rescued were three US contractors, who had been kidnapped when their aircraft crashed during an anti-drugs mission in February 2003, and a further 11 hostages.

The curious timing of the hostages' rescue raises intriguing questions. For while Betancourt’s freedom gets the headlines from Bogota to Paris, it is Alvaro Uribe, right-wing president of this turbulent Andean nation, and a key Washington ally in an increasingly left-leaning Latin America, who is surely the real winner in this extraordinary episode.

FARC - the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - was formed as a rebel peasant army in the 1960s to fight for land reform in a country riven by inequality and poverty. However, its Marxist credentials have been stained since it became involved in narco-trafficking, kidnappings and extortion since the 1980s.

An outspoken critic of FARC, Betancourt was kidnapped in south-west Colombia in 2002. Videos released from the jungle showed a once-strong woman crushed, malnourished, and close to death.

Betancourt's rescue, codenamed Operation Jaque (meaning 'checkmate'), crowns a devastating year for FARC. Once a 20,000-strong force fat with cocaine profits, it is now a crumbling and incoherent group