Rebels on the ropes in Colombia

Today's rescue of 15 hostages held by leftist anti-government rebels in the jungles of Colombia could signal the beginning of the end for the 44-year-old insurgency. Former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, who had been held kidnapped during the 2002 campaign and held for six years, and three U.S. military contractors who had been held for more than five years were among the rescued hostages, according to the Associated Press. Colombia's defense minister said the hostages were rescued without a fight when spies tricked the guerrillas from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) into letting them go. Analysts regard the rescue as worst defeat ever in FARC's decades-long insurgency, which had recently seen many of its top commanders killed by government forces. The three Americans -- Marc Gonsalves, Thomas Howes and Keith Stansell -- who worked for a Northrup Grumman Corp. subsidiary under contract to the Pentagon -- were the longest-held American hostages in the world. FARC had long resisted efforts to free the hostages. Recent efforts included entreaties from Venezuela's anti-U.S. president, Hugo Chavez.