Colombia

Upon Ingrid Betancourt’s liberation, last July, the world was eager for her story: the patrician politician held hostage in Colombia’s rain-forest jungle for six often brutal years by the revolutionary farc guerrillas. In addition to meeting the most famous kidnap victim since Patti Hearst, Maureen Orth interviews three of Betancourt’s fellow hostages (including her closest confidant), Colombian president Álvaro Uribe, and the man who oversaw the daring rescue, to explain how it all plays into a four-decade war.