Ingrid Betancourt – Big Win for the United States

Politicians have a magical attraction to freed hostages, especially famous ones. Few other things offer this kind of a chance to gain popularity without any real effort.

As Ingrid Betancourt, the French-Colombian politician and the world’s most famous hostage, was being freed, a flurry of activity was set into motion. U.S. Presidential candidate John McCain stressed that he had been informed in advance of the mission by the Colombian government. France’s President, Nicolas Sarkozy, sent a plane just to arrange a photo opportunity with Betancourt in Paris. The U.S. government pointed out its “special assistance” with the rescue mission.

The real winner of this operation is really Colombia’s President Álvaro Uribe. His uncompromising battle against the FARC rebel movement now appears to be a successful strategy and throws a bad light on all of those, including Sarkozy, who had been set on a negotiated solution.

At the same time, Uribe’s success is a big win for the United States in South America. Colombia’s President is one of the last allies Washington has on the continent, following the shift to the political Left by many South American countries. The United States supports Uribe with much financial and logistical aid. The White House took great satisfaction in this turn of events since Uribe was successful in pushing back the Marxist inspired FARC.

The big loser in this high stakes game with the hostages is Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez. He simply looks foolish following his unsuccessful attempts to be a mediator in the Betancourt case. He is believed to be a supporter of FARC and is considered to be the biggest adversary of Uribe. But of course, even Chávez has applauded the rescue mission, for the time being.