Betancourt, symbol of Colombia hostages six years after

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Ingrid Betancourt has been in captivity for six years. Photo: EFE

The photograph of Ingrid Betancourt in her mother's Bogota home could not provide a more stark contrast to her life six years after guerrillas kidnapped her as she campaigned for the Colombian presidency.

In the large picture, she smiles with her mother and sister. Six years later, a recent rebel video showed the former legislator gaunt and despondent in a jungle camp where she wrote in a letter: "We live like the dead".

Another anniversary on Saturday arrived with a glimmer of hope for her family, who campaigned from Paris to the Vatican and from Caracas to Buenos Aires to broker a deal between President Alvaro Uribe and rebels holding dozens of hostages. "There are no words to describe what I have felt, what I am feeling", Yolanda Pulecio, Betancourt's mother said this week in her home, where the large color photograph of her two daughters, Ingrid and Astrid, dominates the entrance. "We feel like we have all been kidnapped", she said.

Betancourt, a dual French-Colombian citizen whose children live in Paris, has become an international symbol for Colombia's hostages and her plight is now a major foreign policy issue for French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, Latin America's oldest insurgency and known as FARC, has been weakened by Uribe's U.S.-backed security campaign and violence from the four-decade conflict has eased. But the rebels want to swap jailed fighters for 44 high-profile captives they hold.

International pressure has built recently for a hostage deal with France, Spain, Switzerland and Venezuela engaged in efforts to free captives, who include Betancourt and three Americans caught on an anti-drug mission in 2003.

Haunted faces

Recent images of Betancourt and other captives in secret camps sparked outrage over the poor health of the hostages, their silent haunted faces revealing the stress of living for years hidden in the jungle.

In January FARC turned over to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez two women hostages, including Clara Rojas, who was caught with Betancourt when the two were traveling in southern Colombia.

Four more ailing hostages could soon be released in another deal brokered by Chavez, a Washington foe who says socialism will counter U.S. influence. But his participation has fueled tensions with Uribe, a key White House ally in the region.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner this week visited Caracas and Bogota to press for a hostage deal and suggested regional powerhouse Brazil could help in negotiations. "Things are advancing but far too slowly", Kouchner said in Bogota. "But we will keep stubbornly trying".

For many of the hostage families, Chavez offers the best hope as they believe the former soldier's left-wing credentials can persuade the Marxist-inspired FARC to give up hostages.

But his participation has triggered a diplomatic spat with Colombia. While he was praised for helping free the first two hostages, his call for more political recognition for the FARC has drawn angry rebukes from Bogota.

U.S. and European Union officials label the FARC a drug-trafficking terrorist group and Colombia says recent hostage releases are an attempt by rebel commanders to pressure Uribe.

Attempts to reach a broader hostages-for-prisoners exchange are deadlocked over a FARC demand that Uribe pull troops back from a large swath of southern Colombia to facilitate a handover. He says that will allow the FARC to regroup.

For Betancourt's family, each rare piece of evidence shows her in a worse state than before. She has tried to escape several times and is often chained up. In a recent letter she says she barely eats and is losing hope. "Seeing her as she is now has pushed us to work harder”, said Juan Carlos Lecompete, her husband. "This is now an emergency. The days are slipping away if we have to wait two more years then perhaps Ingrid will not make it".