RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
Rebels in Colombia last week released two women hostages and that has raised hopes that others could also be freed. The left-wing rebels, known as FARC, are holding dozens of political hostages, including three American contractors. The highest-profile captive is the former presidential candidate, Ingrid Betancourt, who's been held since 2002. She's a Colombian with French citizenship, and her two children live in Paris. Betancourt is practically a household name in France, so along with Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, French President Nicolas Sarkozy has stepped in to mediate for her release, as Eleanor Beardsley reports.
MONTAGNE: (Speaking in Foreign Language)
ELEANOR BEARDSLEY: Sitting in a Paris cafe, 19-year-old Lorenzo Betancourt says he's heartened by the release of the two hostages. But he's worried about his mother.
MONTAGNE: When you send messages, you feel extremely close to her. Know when - you know that she listens to it, you feel like you're next to her and you just want to give her hope. My mom won't hold long. If you see her picture, if you see her movies, if you see her letters, she won't hold long, and all the hostages that are there won't hold long either. They're suffering hell.
BEARDSLEY: Writer Dominique Simone(ph) comes to every rally.
MONTAGNE: (Through translator) In France, we just don't leave one of our compatriots out there to die in such a situation. That's a basic principle of democracy. In 2008, how can we allow people to be chained up, some more than 10 years and dragged through the jungle, and only a couple thousand miles from the U.S.?
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U: (Speaking in French)
BEARDSLEY: The scene of the hostages being reunited with their loved ones was broadcast live on French television, and Betancourt's supporters hope she will be freed next. Fourteen hundred towns across France has made Betancourt an honorary citizen.
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P: (Speaking in French)
BEARDSLEY: John Michelob(ph), a correspondent with France 2 television, says Sarkozy likes to see himself as the rescuer of hostages worldwide.
MONTAGNE: He's spent a lot of political capital in the very controversial liberation of Bulgarian hostages in Libya plus Betancourt, she's become quite a cause celebre in France, and that's the main reason why President Sarkozy wants to be on that story.
BEARDSLEY: Back at the cafe, Betancourt's son Lorenzo says he wants Washington to be as active as Sarkozy.
MONTAGNE: The United States can do a lot. They can actually change everything. We know in the United States, liberty is one of the basic values. You can make that possible for every Colombian.
BEARDSLEY: For NPR News, I'm Eleanor Beardsley in Paris.