They were chained by their necks as punishment -- sometimes to a tree or post -- other times to each other.
Food was scarce, conditions were deplorable and sickness was frequent during their years of captivity in the Colombian jungle. There was a time, newly freed hostage Ingrid Betancourt said, when she realized she could die.
"I reached a moment where I understood that death was a possibility," Betancourt said in an interview with France 2 Television. "I had seen my companions die. I knew that death arrives very, very quickly in the jungle." 
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CNN correspondent Karl Penhaul contributed to this report.
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