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...She recalled how the day began, waking up at 4:30 a.m. and saying the rosary before being told by her guards that she and the other hostages were to be transferred to another location, where their detention was to continue.

"My heart broke because I did not want another transfer, another time, in captivity," she said.

But her guard, a woman, was unmoved and ordered Betancourt to cross a river to the pickup spot -- "very harsh, move, hurry up fast, as always," she said.

Soon, two white helicopters approached and several men approached the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia commanders who were overseeing their transfer, she said.

"They spoke with Commander Enrique and Cesar," she said of her captors. As she looked closer, she saw that the men from the helicopter were wearing shirts emblazoned with the likeness of Che Guevara, the Argentine hero of the Cuban revolution. "I thought, this is FARC," she said.

Placed in handcuffs, Betancourt got into the helicopter, still unaware of what was happening. "They closed the helicopter doors, the helicopter started flying and suddenly there was something happening," she said.

"Suddenly I saw the commander who, during four years, had been at the head of our team, who so many times was so cruel and humiliated me, and I saw him on the floor naked with bound eyes."

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Uribe pushes for peace after hostage release

Betancourt recalling freedom: "Helicopter almost fell because we started jumping"
Colombian military infiltrated FARC leadership, defense minister says»

BOGOTA, Colombia (CNN) -- Hours after a military operation that freed 15 hostages, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe on Wednesday night urged peace by calling on leftist rebels to release all hostages.

The Colombian military infiltrated the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia and deceived its members into giving up the hostages, including former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, the country's defense ministry said.

The FARC, which has fought a long, complicated conflict with Colombia's government and right-wing paramilitary groups, has defended hostage-taking as a legitimate act of war and is believed to hold roughly 750 prisoners in the nation's remote jungles.

With Betancourt seated beside the podium from which he spoke, Uribe called the daring operation "an unbelievable military achievement and an honor to humanity."

No shots were fired in the operation.

The security forces who deceived the rebels "are entering the page of the heroes of humanity," Uribe said. Watch Uribe describe the operation to the nation »

Betancourt acknowledged she had been deceived by the mission.

Appearing healthy after being held hostage for six years in the jungle, she walked down from a Colombian military jet in Bogota hours earlier into the arms of her mother and later her husband.

"God carried out this miracle," she said. "This is a miracle because I know that all of you suffered with my family, my children, with me. This is a moment of pride for all of Colombia for such a perfect operation."

Along with Betancourt, three American contractors and 11 Colombian police and military were rescued in the operation. Late Wednesday, the Colombians were with their families and friends in Bogota, and the Americans -- Keith Stansell, Marc Gonsalves and Thomas Howes -- had arrived in the United States.

Betancourt was abducted February 23, 2002, after venturing into rebel territory in the south while campaigning for the Colombian presidency. Once one of Colombia's rising political stares, she was a reformer who fought Colombia's drug cartels as a congresswoman in the 1990s. Her platform called for a nation "free of corruption, violence and free of drugs." Watch Betancourt describe feeling guilty for being kidnapped »

Asked if she still wants to be president, Betancourt said, "If I continue with the dream to serve Colombia, yes, from the presidency, only God knows. At this moment, I just want to feel like another soldier, another soldier for Colombia, in the service of the fatherland."

She said she wanted to discuss her plans with her children and family before commiting to involvement in Colombian politics again, The Associated Press reported.

The former lawmaker said she had fallen gravely ill during her captivity, but that a nurse among the captors had diagnosed her illness and helped her recover.

She recalled how the day began, waking up at 4:30 a.m. and saying the rosary before being told by her guards that she and the other hostages were to be transferred to another location, where their detention was to continue.

"My heart broke because I did not want another transfer, another time, in captivity," she said.

But her guard, a woman, was unmoved and ordered Betancourt to cross a river to the pickup spot -- "very harsh, move, hurry up fast, as always," she said.

Soon, two white helicopters approached and several men approached the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia commanders who were overseeing their transfer, she said.

"They spoke with Commander Enrique and Cesar," she said of her captors. As she looked closer, she saw that the men from the helicopter were wearing shirts emblazoned with the likeness of Che Guevara, the Argentine hero of the Cuban revolution. "I thought, this is FARC," she said.

Placed in handcuffs, Betancourt got into the helicopter, still unaware of what was happening. "They closed the helicopter doors, the helicopter started flying and suddenly there was something happening," she said.

"Suddenly I saw the commander who, during four years, had been at the head of our team, who so many times was so cruel and humiliated me, and I saw him on the floor naked with bound eyes."

It was only then that the reality of liberation hit home.

"The chief of operations said, 'We are the national army, and you are all free,' and the helicopter almost fell because we started jumping, we screamed, we cried, we hugged. We couldn't believe it." Watch Betancourt call the operation 'perfect' »

Betancourt described the operation as "a miracle" and "a moment of pride" in Colombia.

Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos joined the welcome, embracing Betancourt and others.

Earlier, he outlined the operation for the news media, saying the operation followed a length fact-finding effort to develop intelligence in the area.

The Colombian military had infiltrated the FARC leadership and arranged for the hostages to be taken to the south of the country, where they were to be picked up by two helicopters that the rebels believed were controlled by another group, Santos said. Two FARC rebels were also captured, he added.

The operation was "100 percent Colombian," he said.

Betancourt added that she hopes that FARC commanders would not punish the guards who were fooled. It was not their fault, she said; the operation was too perfect for them to detect the deceit.

Betancourt, who holds dual French-Colombian citizenship, said she would travel to France on Thursday to meet French President Nicolas Sarkozy, saying she probably is alive because of French efforts to secure her release, AP reported.

In a televised address after Betancourt's release, Sarkozy expressed happiness and thanks to the Colombian government and urged FARC members to "stop this absurd combat, this fight."

U.S. President Bush phoned Colombian President Alvaro Uribe to congratulate him on the operation.

William Brownfield, U.S. ambassador to Colombia », told CNN's "Larry King Live" that the two countries share intelligence but that the operation was "was overwhelmingly a Colombian operation."

Julio Cesar Betrago, a member of the national police who was kidnapped a decade ago and released with Betancourt, was overjoyed at being freed. "I want to thank our glorious army," he told reporters. "For me, it's like being born again."

The freed American hostages -- Stansell, Gonsalves and Howes -- arrived around midnight at Brook Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas aboard a U.S. military flight. They were working for Northrop Grumman Corp. as part of a U.S.-funded counternarcotics effort when their plane crashed in Colombia on February 13, 2003.

The rescue operation is the latest in a series of blows that has battered the FARC this year. Since March, three members of the rebel group's seven-member general secretariat have died or been killed, including the founder and leader of the rebels, Pedro Antonio Marin, also known as Manuel Marulanda Velez, and the group's second-in-command, Raul Reyes.

The military strike that killed Reyes led to the discovery of a treasure trove of intelligence from computers taken during a raid by Colombian military forces on a FARC camp inside Ecuador, a move that led President Rafael Correa to break diplomatic ties with Colombia.

The computers included reported links between Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and the rebels.


Chavez has denied supporting the rebels and has changed his stance from calling for diplomatic recognition of them as legitimate combatants to calling for them to lay down their arms and end their military struggle.

In an interview with CNN en Espanol, Betancourt said she admires "what Chavez and Correa have done for all of us, but it is key that they support our democracy. In the same way they were elected in a democracy, they have to give the Colombians a chance to solve our problems by ourselves.