Taken captive in 2002 while she campaigned quixotically for the presidency, Betancourt, over her years as a hostage, became a symbol of suffering, courage and endurance.

The rescue was a major victory in Colombia’s struggle with the FARC, a Marxist-inspired insurgency that has been trying to topple the Colombian government for more than four decades. Colombia’s defence minister, Juan Manuel Santos, said the captives, who also included 11 former members of Colombia’s security forces, were removed from the jungle on Wednesday by an elite commando unit in Guaviare after Colombian intelligence operatives infiltrated the FARC’s seven-member secretariat.

The United States was involved in the planning of the operation and provided “specific support,” the White House said. But officials there would not describe the nature of that support.

The three Americans, Marc Gonsalves, Keith Stansell and Thomas Howes, were captured in 2003 while working for the Northrop Grumman Corporation after their surveillance plane went down on an antinarcotics mission for the Pentagon. After they were freed they went on a military plane to San Antonio, to be taken to a military hospital at Fort Sam Houston.

Betancourt and the Americans were among more than 40 captives used by the FARC to bargain for political concessions. The rescue came during a period of fragmentation in the FARC after the killing and capture of several senior commanders in recent months.

Late on Wednesday night, French president Nicolas Sarkozy appeared on television with Betancourt’s grown children and her sister. “Ingrid is in good health,” Sarkozy said of Betancourt, who holds dual French and Colombian citizenship. “My first words would be to say how happy we are.” He also asked the FARC “to stop this absurd and medieval conflict,” promising to take in all the FARC fighters who renounced violence.

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