¡Perfecta!

"La operación fue perfecta." With those words, which first-year students of Spanish should be able to understand easily, Íngrid Betancourt thanked the Colombian military yesterday for her rescue from rebels. Her story is something that Hollywood probably already has on its drawing board, and you can get plenty of the details, in both text and video, today from El Tiempo of Bogotá.

The opening words of Betancourt's statement, currently available in video from a link on the home page, should be understandable by many beginning Spanish students, and there's plenty to be found on the site for more advanced students. One word frequently used here that you may not find in your dictionary is Farc, the name of the revolutionary group. That's the acronym (usually seen as FARC in English-language media) for the rebel group, the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia or Colombian Armed Revolutionary Forces. The Marxist guerrilla group also refers to itself at timesas the Ejército del Pueblo, or People's Army.

Thorough coverage of the event, including audio and video, can also be found at El Colombiano and El Espectador.

Within Colombia, Betancourt was by far by the best-known of the secuestrados, those kidnapped by FARC. She was a long-time political leader, and at the time of being taken hostage in 2002 she was running for president on an anti-corruption platform as candidate of the Green Oxygen Party (Partido Verde Oxígeno). Her plight as a hostage has been watched extensively by Colombian media, and Green Parties and other organizations throughout the world had been active in demanding her release.