Failed Rescue Operation for Betancourt

Date: July 13, 2003 • Location: Le Pré-Saint-Gervais, France

French Directorate General for External Security personnel aborted an operation to rescue Colombian politician Íngrid Betancourt from FARC guerrillas, resulting in a political scandal.

The Directorate General for External Security is France's foreign intelligence agency, equivalent to the British SIS and the American CIA, established on 27 November 1943. The DGSE safeguards French national security through intelligence gathering and conducting paramilitary and counterintelligence operations abroad, as well as economic espionage. The service is currently headquartered in the 20th arrondissement of Paris, but construction has begun on a new headquarters at Fort Neuf de Vincennes, in Vincennes, on the eastern edge of Paris.