Nov 30 (Reuters) - Colombia's government on Friday released videos showing rebel-held hostages, including Colombian-French politician Ingrid Betancourt, alive in jungle camps.

Here are some key facts on the politicians, soldiers and police held hostage by the FARC:

* The FARC began as a peasant army in the 1960s. President Alvaro Uribe has pushed the FARC onto the defensive with his U.S.-backed security campaign. But the group is still fighting, kidnapping and trafficking in cocaine.

* Betancourt and three Americans captured more than four years ago are among around 50 key hostages the FARC wants exchanged for jailed rebels. Some have been held for nearly a decade in secret jungle camps.

* Betancourt was snatched in 2002 while campaigning for the Colombian presidency. She was taken along with her assistant, Clara Rojas, traveling on a rural road. Rojas had a son while in captivity.

* Three U.S. Defense Department contract workers -- Keith Stansell, Thomas Howes and Marc Gonsalves -- were kidnapped in 2003 when their aircraft crashed while on a counter-narcotics mission. A police officer who escaped from the rebels said he saw the men and Betancourt at a camp in April this year.

* The FARC wants Uribe to pull troops back from a New York City-sized rural area for a safe haven. Uribe opposes the demand, saying it would allow the FARC to regroup.

* French President Nicolas Sarkozy in June persuaded Uribe to release a top jailed rebel in an effort to break the deadlock. But the FARC also wants two rebels held in U.S. prisons included in any deal. (Reporting by Patrick Markey in Bogota; editing by Mohammad Zargham)

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