France to Award Ingrid Betancourt Legion of Honor on Bastille Day

By Diane Smith
14:33, July 7th 2008
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France to Award Ingrid Betancourt Legion of Honor on Bastille Day

Former hostage Ingrid Betancourt will be awarded the Legion of Honor on 14th July, France’s most important national holiday, authorities in Paris said according to The International Herald Tribune.

Betancourt, who has been recreantly released after six years of captivity in Colombia, will receive the high-status award on July 14, Bastille Day. French authorities also said that the former captive will also hold a speech at the National Assembly, the lower house of France's parliament, on Wednesday.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced through his presidential office in Paris that Betancourt, both French and Colombian citizen, will be awarded with other Legion of Honor recipients.

This announcement comes after news that Betancourt’s struggle to survive six years in captivity and the story of her daring rescue in a Colombian military operation will be turned into a movie by a Colombian director, a Hollywood production company and RCN-TV, the television channel said Sunday.

Betancourt, a 46-year-old former presidential candidate, was rescued by the Colombian military on Wednesday along with three Americans and 11 other hostages. The rebel FARC guerrillas who were holding the hostages were tricked into believing the 14 captives were just being transferred to another rebel camp.

To prepare the very efficient, bloodless rescue mission, the Colombian troops involved in the operation took acting lessons and disguised themselves as guerrillas. They boarded a helicopter with the captives and left the rebel camp – truly, a story worthy of a Hollywood production.



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