Some freed Colombia hostages return to fractured families

CONSEQUENCES OF CAPTIVITY Broken chains bring broken hearts After a daring rescue that freed 15 Colombian hostages, many return to strained relationships and family feuds By JOHN OTIS BOGOTA, COLOMBIA — Juan Carlos Lecompte spent six years lobbying Colombian officials, marching in the streets and even flying over the jungle in an effort to liberate his hostage wife, Ingrid Betancourt. But when she was freed earlier this month and stepped off a plane at the Bogota airport, Betancourt gave Lecompte a stiff hug, then flew to Paris the next day without him. "Her love for me may have ended in the jungle," Lecompte told the Bogota daily El Tiempo. If years of being chained-up, marched at gunpoint and deprived of medicine and decent food were not bad enough, some of Colombia's newly freed hostages have arrived home to strained... [read full story]