Ex-hostage reunited with children in Colombia

By Hugh Bronstein

BOGOTA (Reuters) - Ingrid Betancourt, the symbol of rebel hostages in Colombia, hugged and wept with her children for the first time in six years on Thursday after a military rescue that dealt a severe blow to already weakened guerrillas.

The rescue was a coup for U.S. ally President Alvaro Uribe and raised the possibility that Latin America's oldest left-wing insurgency is in collapse after it was duped into handing its top bargaining chip to the military in the jungle.

Betancourt, a French-Colombian citizen kidnapped during her 2002 presidential campaign, threw her arms around her two adult children, their eyes tearful a day after her captors unwittingly freed her, three Americans and 11 Colombians.

"What I'm feeling now is something very close to paradise," Betancourt told reporters at an airport in Bogota.

"These are my babies, my pride, my reason for living, my light, my moon, my stars," she said. "Forgive me for saying it, but I think they are very good looking."

Her son and daughter, Lorenzo, 19, and Melanie, 22, flew from Paris with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner as soon as they got news of their mother's rescue from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

Betancourt, 46, could not wait for them to exit the plane. She bolted up the steps to smother them in kisses inside.

She said her captivity in secret camps had driven her to think of suicide. She was punished for several escape attempts, chained at the neck to a tree or made to walk barefoot.