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Paris: Arriving in France to a hero's welcome, Ingrid Betancourt said she cried a lot during her captivity in the Colombian jungle.
Today, she said, "I cry with joy."
French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife met the French-Colombian politician on the tarmac of an air base southwest of Paris on Friday, showering her with hugs, kisses and smiles.
Colombia showed a video on Friday of the rescue of Betancourt and 14 other hostages where their anger turned to ecstasy as theatre-trained military agents duped and overpowered leftist rebels.
The footage of Wednesday's daring rescue showed Betancourt on board the helicopter weeping, smiling and hugging fellow hostages as she was told she was free after six years in captivity at secret jungle camps. Cheering erupted in the background.
The first airing of the video – taken by a military agent posing as a journalist – revealed the shock of the freed hostages, whose raucous celebration rocked the helicopter so hard that Betancourt feared it would crash.
Betancourt, 46, became a cause celebre in France following her abduction in 2002 while campaigning for the Colombian presidency. During her captivity by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or Farc, Betancourt's supporters around France held candlelight vigils and benefit concerts to attract world attention to her plight.
Her release in an ingenious Colombian military operation on Wednesday, and her arrival in France on Friday, were greeted here with a flood of enthusiasm. Hundreds of people, some carrying Colombian or French flags, and many with cameras, lined up behind police barriers around Paris' Elysee presidential palace in hope of getting a glimpse of
her.
"France is my home and you are my family," Betancourt said in an address from the windswept tarmac carried live on French television.
Addressing the French people, she said their support and mobilisation in her favour "saved my life."
Sarkozy praised Betancourt as a beacon of hope for people in dire situations.
The French leader, flanked by his wife and Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, said, "All those, like you, who suffer throughout the world should know that ... there is a light at the end of the tunnel."
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