A last chance?

The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, has made a fresh appeal to the leader of Farc, the Colombian rebel movement, for the release of the hostage Ingrid Betancourt.

The French-Colombian, former senator has been held prisoner by the left-wing group since February 2002 when she was kidnapped while campaigning for the Colombian presidency.

It was last December in the full throes of his Bling Bling presidency that Sarkozy took the unusual step of making his first direct call to the Farc leader, Manuel Marulanda, in a taped radio and television message.

He took a fair amount of stick at the time as detractors viewed the move as just another attempted media coup as he launched himself on the international stage. In the end his hopes to have Betancourt released by Christmas came to nothing.

This time around though it was a different Sarkozy making his recorded appeal once again directly to Marulanda. He appeared both determined and impassioned in a speech that shows he seems quickly to have acquired some of the necessary presidential gravitas that was perhaps until now lacking.

In urging Marulanda to act immediately, Sarkozy said the Farc leader now had a rendezvous with history.

“Release Ingrid Betancourt and the other hostages who are in a weakened state,” Sarkozy implored.

“Don’t lose this chance that’s being presented. It would be a grave political mistake as well as a human tragedy. It would be a crime and you would be responsible for the death of a woman.”

Betancourt’s is thought to be in a weakened condition and her life in danger. She is reportedly suffering from Hepatitis B, has a tropical skin disease and has been on hunger strike since February 23 – the day that marked the anniversary of her sixth year in captivity.

A video released late last year showed her in a weak and gaunt state

But just as important as the content of Sarkozy’s latest appeal is the fact that he has backed it up with a thought-out plan.

He had already been in touch with his Columbian counterpart, Alvaro Uribe, and secured his agreement to suspend all military operations in the area where Betancourt is being held and allow a humanitarian mission to recover the 46-year-old once her exact whereabouts are known. A ‘plane with two French emissaries and Red Cross representatives is on standby in Paris just waiting for the green light.

In an attempt to get the whole process moving along, the French government last week also offered to take in Farc rebels released from prison in exchange for Betancourt’s liberation.