Betancourt fears the impending collapse

Betancourt, a Colombian who took dual French citizenship through her first marriage, has been holding court in one of Paris's nicest hotels, Le Meurice, trying to use her moment of fame to thank those who have helped her and to press for the release of the other, perhaps 700, hostages of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

But she also is trying to avoid describing the details of her ordeal as an attractive woman in captivity in the jungle, a time when she was often chained, physically tortured and humiliated by armed and angry men, whose behavior, she said earlier, was "so monstrous I think they themselves were disgusted."

"I think we have that animal inside of us, all of us, that's the reality of how we are made," she said. "We can be so horrible to the others."

You can have the dark side of man but you can also plug yourself to light and be an enormous light to others. And I think that's what being spiritual means."