They had her locked up for six years.

Ms Betancourt, a French-Colombian politician, has been held for more than six years by the rebel Farc group and is said to be in very poor health.

She is the group’s highest-profile hostage and the French government has made securing her release a priority…

The Colombian military said some 15 hostages had been rescued in total on Wednesday, among them 11 Colombian soldiers.

McCain (foolishly) is in Colombia today himself, so let the paranoid far-left questioning of the timing begin!

Update: I won’t pretend to be familiar with the particulars of this story, but follow the saga of the negotiations for her release at Wikipedia for a sense of just how long it’s been.

Update: Spruiell, who is somewhat familiar with the particulars, credits Colombian President Alvaro Uribe for kicking ass and taking names over the past several months.

Update: Further to Spruiell’s point, Jonathan Winer at the Counterterrorism Blog points to the FARC laptops seized by Colombian troops back on March 1 as a likely source of the intel on Betancourt’s whereabouts. “With this rescue, which may well involve collaboration by defectors from within the FARC, the collapse of the FARC as a political, terrorist, and criminal force in Colombia, after 44 years, may be nearing.”