9. An Audacious Rescue in Columbia

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Footage of her three years as a captive of the narco-Marxist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) paint Ingrid Betancourt with a Modigliani melancholy, attenuated in appearance as well as loneliness. She had been a candidate for the country's presidency and then became its most famous hostage, almost always on the brink of rescue. And then it happened in one of the most dramatic and uplifting events of the year, a military exercise that actually worked to perfection as Colombian security forces used an audacious disguise to trick her captors into handing her over. Betancourt has shown no sign of relinquishing the idealistic dreaminess that made her a less-than-viable political candidate, however, and that continues to make her a drawing card in the influential salons of Europe and the Americas. (July 2)

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