Íngrid Betancourt

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Íngrid Betancourt Pulecio
Ingrid Betancourt in Italy, 2008.
Senator of Colombia
In office 20 July 1998 – 23 February 2002
Member of the Colombian Chamber of Representatives
In office July 20, 1994 – July 20, 1998
Constituency	Bogotá
Born	25 December 1961 (1961-12-25) (age 48) Bogotá, DC, Colombia
Nationality	French-Colombian
Political party	Oxygen Green Party
Spouse(s)	Fabrice Delloye (m. 1983, div. 1990) Juan Carlos Lecompte (m. 1997, filed for divorce)[1]
Children	Melanie Delloye, Lorenzo Delloye
Occupation	Political scientist, politician
Religion	Roman Catholic

Ingrid Betancourt Pulecio (born 25 December 1961)^[2] is a French-Colombian politician, former senator, anti-corruption and activist.

Betancourt was kidnapped by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) on 23 February 2002 and was rescued by Colombian security forces six and a half years later on 2 July 2008. The rescue operation, dubbed Operation Jaque, rescued Betancourt along with 14 other hostages (three Americans and 11 Colombian policemen and soldiers).^[3][4] In all, she was held captive for 2,321 days after being taken while campaigning for the Colombian presidency as a Green. She had decided to campaign in rebel controlled areas despite warnings from the government, police and military not to do so. Her kidnapping received worldwide coverage, particularly in France, because of her dual French citizenship.

She has received multiple international awards, such as the Légion d'honneur. In 2008 she received the Concord Prince of Asturias Award.^[5] Nonetheless, recent books by fellow hostages Clara Rojas and Marc Gonsalves, Keith Stansell, and Thomas Howes paint a picture of a more complex and less heroic person, who sought and obtained privileges because of her privileged status as a well-known political hostage.

Biography

Betancourt was born in Bogotá, Colombia. Her mother, Yolanda Pulecio, is a former beauty queen who later served in Congress^[2] representing poor southern neighborhoods of Bogotá. Her father, Gabriel Betancourt, was minister for the General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla dictatorship (1953–1957), the assistant director of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, then ambassador of Colombia to UNESCO in Paris,^[6] and head of the education commission of the Alliance for Progress in Washington, D.C. under John F. Kennedy. The Betancourt family is one of Colombia's oldest oligarchic families, descended from French Norman immigrants who arrived from Grainville-la-Teinturière three centuries before.^{[citation needed]}

After attending private school in France, a boarding school in England as well as the Liceo Francés in Bogotá,^[6] Betancourt attended the Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris (commonly known as Sciences Po).^[7]

After graduating, Betancourt married fellow student Fabrice Delloye in 1983,^[8] and they had two children, Mélanie (born 1985) and Lorenzo (born 1988). Through this marriage she became a French citizen.^[2] Her husband served in the French diplomatic corps, and the couple lived in multiple countries, including New Zealand and the Seychelles. During the 1980s, she briefly lived in Quito, Ecuador, where she worked as a physical fitness instructor.

In the mid 1990s, Betancourt and Delloye divorced, and she married Colombian advertising executive, Juan Carlos Lecompte in 1997. After her 2008 rescue, Lecompte said their marriage may be over. ^[9]

Her children Melanie and Lorenzo moved to New Zealand to live with their father due to death threats stemming from her political activities.^[10] They were 16 and 13 when she was kidnapped in 2002.^[11]

Political career

In 1989, Luis Carlos Galán, a candidate for the Colombian presidency running on an anti-drug-trafficking platform, was assassinated. Betancourt's mother was a supporter of Galán, and was standing immediately behind him when he was shot;^[12] this event motivated Betancourt to return to Colombia herself in 1989.^[7] From 1990 onwards, she worked at the Ministry of Finance, from which she later resigned to enter politics.^[13] Her first campaign distributed condoms, with the motto that she would be like a condom against corruption. The south of Bogotá supported her, thanks partially to the name recognition from her mother, who helped her campaign.

Election to the Chamber of Representatives, 1994

She was elected to the Chamber of Representatives in 1994 and launched a political party, the Green Oxygen Party. During her term, she criticized the administration of President Ernesto Samper, who was accused of corruption in the 8000 Process scandal after accepting money from the Cali drug cartel for his electoral campaign.

Elected Senator of Colombia, 1998

Betancourt ran for Senator in the 1998 election, and the total number of votes she received was the largest number of any candidate in that year's senate election. During her time in elected office, death threats caused her to send her children from her first marriage to New Zealand, where they could live with her ex-husband.^[12]

That same year, the presidential election was ultimately won by Andrés Pastrana. Pastrana persuaded her to endorse him, and she campaigned on his behalf. She claims he later reneged on the promises he made to her when she agreed to do so.

Presidential candidate, 2002

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Íngrid Betancourt launched her presidential campaign on May 20, 2001 next to a statue of Simon Bolivar in Bogotá. She then began a campaign bus trip around the country to attend local community meetings.^[14]

As part of her campaign for the presidency in 2002 Betancourt decided to go to the demilitarized zone (DMZ) in the town of San Vicente del Caguán to meet with the FARC. This was not unusual—many public figures took the opportunity afforded by the DMZ to meet with the FARC as part of the negotiation process. At the time she decided to go, the Colombian Army suggested her not to go, since they would be unable to provide protection, due to hostility in the area after the DMZ had been militarized again. They made her sign a document that said just that, which she immediately signed. The election was eventually won by Álvaro Uribe, who never attended such meetings after having received threats from the rebel group.

The peace talks reached an impasse dead after more than three years of negotiations. From the beginning, the FARC would not agree to a truce for the duration of the negotiations, nor that the peace talks be overseen by different representatives of the international community. Though the DMZ was purported to be a "laboratory for peace", in practice the FARC continued its kidnapping activities, military attacks, purchasing of weapons, and even building roads and airstrips for trafficking narcotics. Critics considered the DMZ to have been turned into a safe haven in which the FARC imposed its will as law launching military attacks and acts of terrorism outside the DMZ before withdrawing back to it, in order to avoid direct confrontation with government armed forces. Also during this time, hundreds of civilians were kidnapped throughout different cities and rural areas of the country. They were then transported back to the DMZ where they were kept in cages, many of them having been kidnapped for economic extortion, others for "political reasons". By the end of 2001 the Colombian government and public opinion (according to different polls) were growing impatient and discouraged at the situation.

In February 2002, a turboprop plane flying from Florencia to Bogotá—a distance of some 1000 km (600 miles)—was hijacked in midair by FARC members. The plane was forced to land on a highway strip near the city of Neiva and then a member of the Colombian Congress was kidnapped. As a consequence, President Andrés Pastrana canceled the talks with the FARC and revoked the DMZ, arguing that the FARC had betrayed the terms of the negotiation and had used the DMZ to grow stronger in military and logistical capabilities. In a televised statement, the president expressed the government's intention of retaking the DMZ, informing that the military operation would begin at midnight, and also urged the FARC to respect the lives and the livelihood of those civilians still present in the DMZ.

Autobiography

After being rebuffed by Colombian publishers, Betancourt published her memoirs in French in March 2001 under the title La rage au cœur, successfully avoiding a legal challenge brought by former Colombian President Ernesto Samper.^[6] The memoir generated intense media coverage in France, where it was the number one best seller for four weeks and a best seller for another nine.^[6] It has since appeared in Spanish as La rabia en el corazón,^[15] and in English as Until Death Do Us Part: My Struggle to Reclaim Colombia (2002).^[16]

Kidnapping

Most candidates for political office that intended to do so backed off when authorities warned them of the danger. Ingrid Betancourt, as another one of these candidates, insisted on being taken to the former DMZ by a military aircraft. President Pastrana and other officials turned down this petition, arguing that neither they, nor the Colombian Army, could guarantee her safety during the turmoil that would follow the retaking of the DMZ. Additionally, Betancourt was running for president in the 2002 elections; aiding her in such a request would have meant that the government was rendering its resources to Betancourt's private political interests, as well as that the government was either backing a candidate for the presidential elections or, alternatively, that it then had to assist every single candidate in their demands of using official and military resources for their private interests.

When denied transport aboard this military helicopter that was heading to the zone, she decided to head into the DMZ via ground transport, together with Clara Rojas, her campaign manager who was later named running-mate for the 2002 election, and a handful of political aides. On 23 February 2002, she was stopped at the last military checkpoint before going into the former DMZ. Military officers insisted that Betancourt and her party not continue in their effort to reach San Vicente del Caguan, the village used for the peace talks. San Vicente's mayor was the only Oxigeno elected official in the entire country by then. Intense fighting was taking place inside the DMZ and the security situation was rapidly deteriorating. Betancourt dismissed their warnings and she continued her journey. According to her kidnapper, the later captured Nolberto Uni Vega, Betancourt ended up at a FARC checkpoint where she was captured. Her kidnap was never planned beforehand, said the rebel.^[17] Ingrid still appeared on the ballot for the presidential elections; her husband promised to continue her campaign. In the end, she achieved less than 1% of the votes.

Uribe's initial policy

Ever since the days of the Pastrana negotiations, when a limited exchange took place, the FARC have demanded the formalization of a mechanism for prisoner exchange. The mechanism would involve the release of what the FARC terms as its "political hostages", currently numbering 28, in exchange for most jailed guerrillas, numbering about 500. For the FARC, most of its other hostages, those held for extortion purposes and which would number at least a thousand, would not be considered subject to such an exchange, as of yet.

The newly elected Uribe administration initially ruled out any negotiation with the group that would not include a ceasefire, and instead pushed for rescue operations, many of which have traditionally been successful when carried out by the police's GAULA anti-kidnapping group in urban settings (as opposed to the mountains and jungles where the FARC keeps most prisoners), according to official statistics and mainstream news reports.

However, relatives of Ingrid and of most of FARC's political hostages came to strongly reject any potential rescue operations, in part due to the death of the governor of the Antioquia department, Guillermo Gaviria, his peace advisor and several soldiers, kidnapped by the FARC during a peace march in 2003. The governor and the others were shot at close range by the FARC when the government launched an army rescue mission into the jungle which failed as soon as the guerrillas learned of its presence in the area.

Negotiations

2002

A day after Betancourt's kidnapping several non government organizations (NGO) under the lead of Armand Burguet were organized in the European Union and around the world to establish an association or committee for the liberation of Íngrid Betancourt. The committee initially consisted of some 280 activists in 39 countries.

One month after her kidnapping, her father Gabriel died of heart and respiratory trouble.

2003

In July 2003 Opération 14 juillet was launched, which both failed to liberate Betancourt and caused a scandal for the French government.^[18] A video of Betancourt was released by FARC in August 2003.^[7]

2004

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In August 2004, after several false-starts and in the face of mounting pressure from relatives, former Liberal presidents Alfonso López Michelsen and Ernesto Samper (whom Ingrid had criticized) came out in favor of a humanitarian exchange. The Uribe government, seeming to have gradually relaxed its position, announced that it had given the FARC a formal proposal on 23 July, in which it offered to free 50 to 60 jailed rebels in exchange for the political and military hostages held by the FARC group (not including economic hostages, as the government had earlier demanded).

The government would make the first move, releasing insurgents charged or condemned for rebellion and either allowing them to leave the country or to stay and join the state's reinsertion program. Then the FARC would release the hostages in its possession, including Íngrid Betancourt. The proposal would have been carried out with the backing and support of the French and Swiss governments, who publicly supported it once it was revealed.

The move was signaled as potentially positive by several relatives of the victims and Colombian political figures. Some critics of the president have considered that Uribe may seek to gain political prestige from such a move, though they would agree with the project in practice.

The FARC released a communiqué dated 20 August (but apparently published publicly only on 22 August) in which they denied having received the proposal earlier through the mediation of Switzerland as the government had stated. While making note of the fact that a proposal had been made by the Uribe administration and that it hoped that common ground could eventually be reached, the FARC criticized the offer because they believe that any deal should allow them to decide how many of its jailed comrades would be freed and that they should be allowed to return to the rebel ranks.

On 5 September, what has been considered as a sort of FARC counter proposal was revealed in the Colombian press. The FARC proposed that the government declare a "security" or "guarantee" zone for 72 hours in order for official insurgent and state negotiators to meet face to face and directly discuss a prisoner exchange. Government military forces would not have to leave the area but to concentrate in their available garrisons, in a similar move to that agreed by the Ernesto Samper administration (1994–1998) which involved the group freeing some captured security forces. In addition, the government's peace commissioner would have to make an official public pronouncement regarding this proposal.

If the zone were created, the first day would be used for traveling to the chosen location, the second to discuss the matter, and the third for the guerrillas to abandon the area. The government would be able to chose the location for the "security zone" from among one of the municipalities of Peñas Coloradas, El Rosal or La Tuna, all in Caquetá department, where the FARC had influence. It was speculated by retired military analysts^[who?] that the FARC could potentially set up land mines or other traps around local military garrisons while the zone is in place.

The FARC proposal to arrange a meeting with the government was considered as positive by Yolanda Pulecio, Íngrid's mother, who called it a sign of "progress...just as the (government) commissioner can meet with (right-wing) paramilitaries, why can't he meet with the others, who are just as terrorist as they are."

2006

In February 2006, France urged the FARC to seize the chance offered by a European-proposed prisoner swap, accepted by Bogotá, and free dozens it had held for up to seven years. Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said it was "up to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to show they were serious about releasing former Colombian presidential candidate Íngrid Betancourt and other detainees."^{[citation needed]}

In an interview with French newspaper L'Humanité in June 2006, Raul Reyes, a leader of the FARC, said that Betancourt "is doing well, within the environment she finds herself in. It's not easy when one is deprived of freedom."^[19]

2007

In May 2007, a kidnapped Colombian National Police sub-intendant Jhon Frank Pinchao managed to escape from FARC captivity, claiming that Betancourt was being held in the same prison camp he had been in. He also reported seeing Clara Rojas, who had given birth to a son (Emmanuel), while in captivity.^{[citation needed]}

On 18 May, President Álvaro Uribe reiterated his orders for the rescue by military means of Íngrid and other political figures. This happened after he interviewed a police officer captured by the FARC who ran away and told his story saying many of the prisoners were sick.^{[citation needed]}

Shortly after taking office in mid-May, French President Nicolas Sarkozy asked Uribe to release FARC's "chancellor" Rodrigo Granda in exchange for Betancourt.^{[citation needed]}

On 4 June, 30 incarcerated members from the FARC were liberated as a goodwill gesture by the government to pursue the liberation of Betancourt and others. However this did not result in her freedom.^{[citation needed]}

On 26 July 2007 Melanie Delloye, Betancourt's daughter, reported two French diplomats had been unsuccessful in confirming that she was still alive according to news agency EFE. President Sarkozy affirmed this to the press. However former hostage Jhon Frank Pinchao (see above) repeated that Betancourt was alive, and had attempted to escape several times from the FARC camp where both were held, but had been recaptured and "severely punished".^[20]

In August 2007, reporter Patricia Poleo, a Venezuelan national exiled in the United States, stated that Betancourt was being held in Venezuela and that her release was near. The government of Colombia expressed doubts about this information through its minister of foreign affairs Fernando Araújo.^[21] Poleo also criticized Hugo Chávez for using this situation to improve relations with France after an impasse with the government of Jacques Chirac in which they refused to sell arms to Venezuela. A few days after Poleo's statements, President Chávez openly offered his services to negotiate between the FARC and the government in an effort to release those kidnapped, but denied knowing about the whereabouts of Betancourt.^[22]

On 11 November 2007, Chávez told French newspaper Le Figaro that he hoped to be able to show Sarkozy proof before their meeting on 20 November that Betancourt was alive,^[23] while on 18 November Chávez announced to the French press that he had been told by a FARC leader that she was still alive.^[24]

On 30 November, the Colombian government released information that they had captured three members of the urban cells of the FARC in Bogotá who had with them videos and letters of people held hostage by the FARC, including Betancourt. In the video Betancourt appears in the jungle sitting on a bench looking at the ground.^[25][26] She "appeared extremely gaunt".^[10] A letter intended for Íngrid's mother, Yolanda, which was found at the same time, was also published in several newspapers.^[27]

2008

In 2008, Chávez, with the initial permission of the Colombian government and the participation of the International Red Cross, organized humanitarian operations in order to receive several civilian hostages whose release had been announced by FARC. The first, so-called Operation Emmanuel, named in honor of Clara Rojas' son, initially failed but later led to the release of Clara Rojas and Consuelo González. Emmanuel was rescued previously after a stunning declaration from president Uribe, where it was discovered the infant was left in a foster home after being severely mistreated by the guerrillas.

On 27 February a second operation was carried out, freeing four former members of the Colombian Congress. The released hostages were very concerned about the health of Betancourt. One described her as "exhausted physically and in her morale ... Íngrid is mistreated very badly, they have vented their anger on her, they have her chained up in inhumane conditions." Another said that she has Hepatitis B and is "near the end". Nicolas Sarkozy said he is prepared to personally go to accept her release if necessary.^[28]

On 27 March, the Colombian government, with Uribe's support, offered to free hundreds of guerrilla fighters in exchange for Betancourt's release.^[29]

On 31 March, Colombian news station Caracol quoted several sources saying Betancourt has stopped taking her medication and stopped eating. She was said to be in desperate need of a blood transfusion.^[30]

On 2 April, Betancourt's son, Lorenzo Delloye, addressed the FARC and the President Uribe, to facilitate her release in order to prevent her death. He quoted the need for a blood transfusion in order to keep her alive saying that otherwise she may die in the next few hours.^[31]

On 3 April, an envoy left for Colombia to try to make contact with Betancourt and many of the other captives, who have become ill after years of captivity in the jungle. After two days, the envoy, including a doctor, still hadn't heard from the FARC, but received orders from the French government to wait.^[32] Five days after arrival of the envoy the FARC released a press note on the Bolivarian Press Agency website,^[33] refusing the mission access to their hostages, because "the French medical mission was not appropriate and, moreover, was not the result of an agreement."^[34] Following the FARC's refusal, the French government called off the humanitarian mission and said foreign minister Bernard Kouchner would visit the region.^[35]

On 2 July news reports stated that Betancourt and three American hostages were recovered (see Rescue below). Altogether, 15 hostages were freed, including 11 Colombian soldiers.^[36] Ministry of National Defense Juan Manuel Santos said all the former hostages were in reasonably good health,^[37] although Betancourt stated she was tortured during her captivity.^[38]

2009

In a book titled Out of Captivity, written by American Northrop Grumman contractors, Marc Gonsalves, Keith Stansell, and Thomas Howes and published in February 2009, they described Betancourt's behavior as a captive of FARC as selfish, feeling she deserved better treatment than the other captives due to her political and social standing. The Americans, held captive by the FARC from 2003 to 2008, stated that throughout their captivity Betancourt claimed and took more than her fair share of scarce food, clothing, and personal space.^[39]

In one instance, according to Stansell, Betancourt, who apparently did not want the Americans accommodated in the same jail as her, told the FARC guards that the three Americans were working for the CIA, had tracking microchips embedded in their bodies, and should be isolated and watched closely. Said Stansell of her actions, "We could have been executed because she wanted more space in camp for herself."^[40] In an interview with the American TV news program 20/20, Stansell described Betancourt as the "most disgusting woman he'd ever met."^[41]

Betancourt declined to comment on the Americans' allegations. A spokesperson for her said that she was "dedicated to writing her own book and not making declarations until it is finished."^[42]

Rescue

On 2 July 2008, Minister of Defense Juan Manuel Santos called a press conference to announce the rescue of Betancourt and 14 other captives. The operation that won their release, codenamed "Jaque" (Spanish for "check" as in checkmate), included members of the Colombian military intelligence who infiltrated local FARC squads and the secretariat of FARC, according to Santos. The FARC members in charge of the hostages were convinced to accept a request from headquarters to gather the hostages together, supposedly to be flown to FARC chief Alfonso Cano. Instead, they were flown by government personnel dressed as FARC members to San José del Guaviare. No one was harmed during the rescue. Three American Northrop Grumman contractors, Marc Gonsalves, Keith Stansell, and Thomas Howes, were among those released.^[43]

Colombian military agents spent months planting themselves within FARC, gaining the members' trust, and joining the leadership council. Other agents were assigned to guard the hostages. Using their authority in the group, the agents ordered the hostages moved from three different locations to a central area. From this point, the hostages, agents, and about 60 real FARC members made a 90-mile march through the jungle to a spot where, agents told the FARC members, an "international mission" was coming to check on the hostages. On schedule, an unmarked white helicopter set down and Colombian security forces posing as FARC members jumped out. They told the FARC members that they would take the hostages to the meeting with the "international mission." All of the captives were handcuffed and placed aboard the helicopter, along with two of their FARC guards, who were quickly disarmed and subdued after the helicopter lifted off. According to Betancourt, a crew member then turned and told the 15 hostages, "We are the national military. You are free."^[44] Tracking technology was used by the rescuers to zero in on their target. ^[43]

On 16 July 2008 it became public that one of the Colombian officials was misusing a Red Cross emblem during the rescue operation.^{[45][46][47][48]}

Religious significance

President Uribe stated that the rescue operation “was guided in every way by the light of the Holy Spirit, the protection of our Lord and the Virgin Mary.” ^[49] The hostages indicated that they had spent much time in captivity praying the rosary, and Ms. Betancourt, formerly a lapsed Catholic who prayed daily on a wooden rosary which she made while a hostage,^[50] attributed the rescue as follows: “I am convinced this is a miracle of the Virgin Mary. To me it is clear she has had a hand in all of this.”^[49]

On 21 July 2008, Ms. Betancourt and her family made a pilgrimage to Lourdes to give thanks and to pray for her captors and those who remained hostage.^[51] Betancourt rediscovered her Catholic faith during her captivity, and it got her through the valley of the shadow of death. Not only did she discover man's capacity for evil, but also his capacity for holiness.

Accompanied by her mother, son and daughter, she went to Lourdes to thank Virgin Mary. Betancourt, who noted the Lourdes pilgrimage would be her last public appearance until she recuperated, said she had made a rosary from buttons and old string during her captivity to be able to pray. Asked about her rosary, she called it, in humor, "an error." She said she recalled her father saying the rosary, but could not remember exactly how it worked, how many times she was supposed to pray to the Virgin Mary. "So I thought, in case it's not 10, maybe 15," she said, fingering the rosary's 15 buttons, from a jacket the guerrillas had given her.

Meanwhile, Betancourt told a French Catholic magazine, Le Pelerin (The Pilgrim), July 12 that she constantly had read the Bible as a hostage, “made many promises to the Virgin Mary,” and believed her faith had “constantly grown.”

“If I had not had the Lord at my side, I don’t think I could have overcome this suffering,” she said. “Being a hostage places you in a situation of constant humiliation. You are a victim of total arbitrariness and you get to know what’s most vile in the human spirit.

“Faced by this, there are two paths. You either let yourself grow ugly, bitter, peevish and vindictive, and let your heart fill with spite, or you choose the other path which Jesus showed us when he asked us to bless our enemies,” said Betancourt.

She always tried to keep her dignity, she said, finding solace and sanity in daily activities, some private, like meditation and prayer, and some collective -- "to give yourself stability in a world with no stability." She said she found some nobility among the hostages and the degradation. "That's the magic of all things. 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."

God is personal to her, she said. "I know that I talk to him, and that he responds." People dismiss the miraculous, she said, and "prefer talking about coincidences," but "what I think about miracles is that it happens all the time to everybody."

Ingrid Betancourt embraces the Pope in breach of protocol Pope Benedict XVI with Ingrid Betancourt

Ingrid Betancourt, the French-Colombian hostage who was freed in the Colombian jungle in July after over six years, today broke with Vatican protocol to physically embrace Pope Benedict XVI.

The normal practice for Catholics when meeting the Pontilff is to kneel or curtsy and kiss the papal ring, however, Ms Betancourt went one step further in private because she was so overcome with emotion.

In August 2008, Betancourt and her family were received by Pope Benedict XVI in a brief audience. She said "The audience with the Pope was a dream for me, to meet a being of light, of humanity or a very high level of human understanding." She told Benedict how she was overcome when she heard the pontiff appeal for her freedom on a radio broadcast while she was in captivity. She later told reporters: "As soon as I switched the radio on, I heard the voice of the Pope who was saying my name. You cannot imagine what this can mean to a person in my situation, a prisoner, to understand you have not been forgotten."

Ms Betancourt added: "I didn't follow protocol because as soon as I walked in I embraced the Pope, and maybe you are not supposed to embrace the Pope." The 20-minute encounter took place at Castelgandolfo, the papal summer residence in the Alban Hills, south of Rome.

She told the Pope that she had prayed for a miracle, asking God to send her a sign of when she would be freed. Soon after one of her captors told her some hostages might be released to a visiting group from an "international commission". She was then freed in an operation conducted by the Colombian military. She said "When I told the Pope this, he replied: 'He heard you because you knew how to ask. You didn't ask for a miracle to be freed yourself, instead you asked to understand what was His will'.'"

Ms Betancourt said she was a Roman Catholic but had never read the Bible before her capture, thinking it to be "a dusty old book". In captivity she had read it "20,000 times" and now held it to be "an instruction manual for happiness". She said she had recited the rosary each day while in rebel hands.

Dressed in a black lace veil, she was accompanied by her mother, Yolanda Polecio — whom Pope Benedict met in February — and other family members.

Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, said that the aim of Ms Betancourt's trip was "to thank the Pope for his prayer, his commitment, his remarks in favour of all the hostages and her personally". She had also "wanted to talk about the experience of her faith supporting her during her captivity".

Asked about her future, Ms Betancourt did not rule out a return to politics but said that her priority was to work for the liberation of other hostages in Colombia and around the world.

Media reports claimed today that the Italian Refounded Communist Party (Rifondazione Comunista) had aided Farc by raising funds for it even while Ms Betancourt was being held. The revelation allegedly emerged from e-mails on a captured rebel laptop belonging to the Farc commander Raul Reyes, who was killed in March in a Colombian military raid.

The support is reported to have included payment of medical bills for a Farc representative in a Swiss clinic. A spokesman for Rifondazione Comunista, Ramon Mantovani, admitted the contacts with Farc but said that its objective was to "rebuild a peace process in Colombia", adding that the party had always demanded the liberation of Ms Betancourt.

Political consequences

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The liberated Betancourt didn't hesitate to give thanks to the Colombian armed forces and to President Álvaro Uribe and even gave her approval to his third term as a president, even though her mother criticized him severely all along. She urged neighbouring presidents Hugo Chavez (Venezuela) and Correa (Ecuador) to help Colombia and rather seek the political transformations in her country by democratic means. And she stated that she will dedicate herself now to teaching the world about the reality of the FARC and their cruel hostage taking policy. It has been recognized that the liberation of Betancourt caused a dramatic change of the political scene.^[52]

In an interview on French radio shortly after her return to France, Betancourt distanced herself from Uribe's approach, while accepting that his security policy had been successful. She said the situation was at a point where "the vocabulary has to change" arguing that "the way in which we talk about the other side is very important." ^[53]

She has not ruled out a return to the Colombian political scene. In fact while she has said that "France is my home" she also was "proud to be Colombian" said hopes to serve her nation in the future. She has not ruled out a future presidential campaign.

Reunion and Celebration

Sarkozy sent a French Air Force jet with Betancourt's children, her sister Astrid and her family, and accompanied by Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner for a tearful reunion. After paying her respects at her father's tomb she and the family boarded the jet and flew to France where she was greeted by Sarkozy and the First Lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy. She gave speeches and urged the world not to forget and continue for the liberation of the rest of the hostages. She also spent several days in hospital.

On July 9, President Michelle Bachelet of Chile said she would nominate Betancourt for a Nobel Prize. Sarkozy announced that she would receive the Legion of Honor at the Bastille Day celebrations.

On July 20, Betancourt appeared next to singer Juanes at a rally in Trocadero in Paris to celebrate Colombia's independence day and to once more urge the FARC to release all their hostages. Speaking directly to Alfonso Cano she said:

See this Colombia, see the extended hand of President Uribe, and understand that it is time to stop the bloodshed. It is time to drop those weapons and change them for roses, substitute them with tolerance, respect, and as brothers that we are, find a way so that we can all live together in the world, live together in Colombia.”^[54]

Allegations of payment

On 4 July 2008, Radio Suisse Romande reported that unnamed "reliable sources" had told it the rescue took place after a payment of USD 20 million by the United States.^[55] According to Le Monde, the French Foreign Ministry denied the payment of any ransom by France.^[56]

Frederich Blassel, the author of the Radio Suisse Romande story, told Colombia's W Radio that, according to his source, the release wasn't negotiated directly with FARC but with alias César, one of the two guerrillas captured during the operation, who would have received the payment of USD 20 million. According to Blassel, the two rebels could be given new identities by Spain, France and Switzerland.^[57][58]

The Minister of Defense Juan Manuel Santos, and Vice President Francisco Santos, in response to these claims, denied any payment. "That information is absolutely false. It has no basis. We don't know where it comes from and why its being said".^[59] He also added with a touch of irony that "Actually, it would have been a cheap offer, because we were willing to give up to USD 100 million..." "We would be the first to inform publicly, because it is part of our rewards system policy, and besides, it would speak much worse about the FARC".^[59]

According to Colombia's El Tiempo and W Radio, General Fredy Padilla de León, Commander of the Colombian Armed Forces, denied the existence of any payment by the Colombian government. General Padilla argued that if any payment had been made, it would have been better to make it publicly known, to use it as an incentive and to cause confusion within FARC's ranks.^[60][61]

Apologies from the abductor

On 15 April 2008, Betancourt's abductor, Nolberto Uni Vega, said to journalists attending his trial in Combita that he is sorry for abducting the former presidential candidate, and that he feels "remorse" over her plight.^[62] Uni gave a letter of apology to a journalist for delivery to Betancourt's mother, who would pass it on to President Sarkozy.

Jacques Thomet book

A book released in January 2006 entitled Ingrid Betancourt, histoire de cœur ou raison d'état ? by Jacques Thomet sparked a debate in France about the real reasons behind the French government's involvement in the Ingrid Betancourt affair. The book claimed that personal relationships between then French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin (later prime minister) and the Betancourt sisters Astrid and Íngrid^[63] were the main driving force for the French government's involvement in the case and the cause of several mistakes that prolonged her captivity in the hands of the FARC guerrillas.

La Nuit Blanche

In October 2007, Bertrand Delanoë, the mayor of Paris, announced the upcoming Nuit Blanche, saying, "This year, both Paris and Rome want to dedicate La Nuit Blanche to Ingrid Bétancourt. [She is] an honorary citizen of the city of Paris, and an especially (committed and involved) woman, who has been held in Colombia by the FARC since 23 February 2002. We will [continue to] fight unceasingly for her release."^[64]

Life after the rescue

Betancourt received the Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur (National Order of the Legion of Honour) shortly after her rescue and the Prince of Asturias Award of Concord in October 2008. She also met with international heads of state and international personalities such as Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon, Pope Benedict XVI, King Juan Carlos of Spain and Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, President Alvaro Uribe of Colombia, President Cristina Kirchner of Argentina, etc.

In 2008, she signed a $1 million deal with Penguin Press to write a memoir.^{[citation needed]}

She also announced retirement from her public life for a period of at least 6 months in 2009.^{[citation needed]}

BETANCOURT'S SURPRISE BEST SELLER

Within hours of political hostage Ingrid Betancourt's rescue on July 2, the publishing industry was already buzzing about a major book deal for her. But one of Betancourt's many surprises upon her release after six years of imprisonment was finding out that she had already written a best-selling book, without even knowing it.

In November, during the arrest of several FARC guerillas in Bogota, Colombia, the police confiscated a video of Betancourt as well as a 12-page letter that she had written to her mother and family last year as proof that she was still alive. The poignant letter, penned in cramped handwriting, was immediately published as a book in France, where Betancourt grew up, and quickly became a best seller. An English edition was published by Harry N. Abrams in the U.S. this May.

Now Abrams is rushing out a second printing of Letters to My Mother ($14.95). Says Michael Jacobs, president and CEO of Abrams, "We wanted to help get the word out about Ingrid's plight, and now her release is clearly helping to sell the book." The slim volume, the first document written by Betancourt, 46, about her captivity, is a coup for the New York City publisher. It contains a passionate foreword by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel, who pleads, "In the name of her humanity, and of yours, I implore you to listen to this voice." It also contains a loving response from her son and daughter, who were electrified by the unexpected proof that their mother was still alive.

Letters shows a woman who has, like an older version of Anne Frank, retained her faith in humanity against all the evidence, and whose love for her family supports her. Her deep sense of faith has also sustained her. "I am in communication with God, Jesus and the Virgin every day," she writes. Which is not to say that Betancourt did not suffer mightily. "Morning overcast, like my spirit," she opens. "My beloved and divine Mamita [her pet name for her mother] of my heart...Every day I pray to God to bless you, to care for you, protect you, and allow me the opportunity to one day indulge you in everything, to please you in everything, to have you like a queen close to me; since I cannot bear the thought of being separated from you again."

Betancourt describes a brutal enslavement: "I haven't being [sic] eating; my appetite has shut down; my hair is falling out in clumps; I have no desire for anything...Here, nothing is one's own, nothing lasts; uncertainty and precariousness are the only constant. The order is given at any moment to pack up and one gets to sleep stretched out anywhere like an animal. Those are the particularly difficult moments for me. My palms sweat, my mind gets foggy, and I end up doing things twice as slowly as normal. The marches are a calvary because my luggage is very heavy and I can't handle it."

Variety reported this week that Hollywood has already come knocking, eager to film the real-life drama. But for the person who wants to know what Betancourt and her fellow hostages went through in real time, this small book, written in the "green prison of this jungle," offers a moving first stop.

By Andrea Sachs, Time Magazine.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1822145,00.html#ixzz0eCDPUsnw

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ingrid Betancourt

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Íngrid Betancourt

v • d • e Candidates in the 2002 Colombian presidential election Álvaro Uribe · Horacio Serpa · Luis Eduardo Garzón · Noemi Sanin · Íngrid Betancourt · Harold Bedoya Pizarro