•Feb 24, 2003: FARC claims responsibility for bringing down the plane and says it has the Americans

•July 2-22, 2003: Betancourt's sister, Astrid, and husband Juan Carlos Lecompte, wait in Tabatinga, Brazil for her release. The FARC had told the family it would hand her over because of poor health, Lecompte says. There is no hand-over

•Aug 30, 2003: Colombia's Noticias Uno shows a video of Betancourt, the first images of her in over a year

•Oct 8, 2003: CBS' 60 Minutes II shows footage of the Americans urging authorities to negotiate their release and not risk a rescue, saying they would likely die in the attempt

•Aug 16, 2007: Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez says he is willing to help mediate peace talks between the guerrillas and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe

•Nov 21, 2007: Colombia's government cancels Chavez's mediation role after Chavez spoke directly with the head of Colombia's army, disobeying an order from Uribe

•Nov 30, 2007: Colombian authorities release videos of the three Americans and Betancourt confiscated during a raid on three suspected members of the FARC's urban militias in Bogota

•Jan 10, 2008: Rojas and former Congresswoman Consuelo Gonzalez are freed and flown to Venezuela

•March 1, 2008: Colombian security forces raid a FARC camp in Ecuador and kill rebel commander Raul Reyes, who had been in contact with the French government over the release of Betancourt

•April 1, 2008: FARC says the cross-border raid on the rebel camp in Ecuador "gravely" harmed efforts to win Betancourt's release

... contd.