In This Article
Subscribe to International Updates
Jacky Naegelen/AP
Ingrid Betancourt, front left, attends a ceremony at the Senate in Paris, July 8, 2008.
Ingrid Betancourt, front left, attends a ceremony at the Senate in Paris, July 8, 2008.
Future Wide Open to Ingrid Betancourt Following Rescue
July 09, 2008 09:54 AM
by
Josh Katz
Not a week has past since Ingrid Betancourt was rescued from the jungles of Colombia, and she is already fighting for the causes she believes in.
30-Second Summary
During her six years as a captive, Ingrid Betancourt spent time chained to a tree and withstood stints of serious illness. She told France 24 television that there were times when she was forced to plod 15 miles a day through the jungle.
Her lifestyle changed drastically on July 2, when Colombian forces rescued Betancourt and 14 other hostages from the FARC rebels who held them captive.
Betancourt, who holds a dual French and Colombian nationality, has not spent much of her freedom resting. After the rescue she spent two days in Colombia before heading to France. “She is meeting with officials, a former professor, clinching a deal to write a play and giving interviews nonstop,” according to the Associated Press.
Betancourt was a Colombian senator running for president in 2002 when she was kidnapped by FARC rebels. There are rumors that the 46-year-old may be seeking her country’s top position once again.
Richard Lapper of the Financial Times writes, “30 per cent of a sample of Colombians surveyed last week said they would vote for her and at least one prominent leader of the left-wing Democratic Pole has openly suggested she may well run as the party’s candidate in the 2010 election.” Lapper even quoted a news magazine that compared Betancourt to Nelson Mandela.
She has already questioned the tactics of Colombian President Álvaro Uribe toward her former kidnapers, asking him to temper his “radical, extremist language of hate” against FARC.
Her lifestyle changed drastically on July 2, when Colombian forces rescued Betancourt and 14 other hostages from the FARC rebels who held them captive.
Betancourt, who holds a dual French and Colombian nationality, has not spent much of her freedom resting. After the rescue she spent two days in Colombia before heading to France. “She is meeting with officials, a former professor, clinching a deal to write a play and giving interviews nonstop,” according to the Associated Press.
Betancourt was a Colombian senator running for president in 2002 when she was kidnapped by FARC rebels. There are rumors that the 46-year-old may be seeking her country’s top position once again.
Richard Lapper of the Financial Times writes, “30 per cent of a sample of Colombians surveyed last week said they would vote for her and at least one prominent leader of the left-wing Democratic Pole has openly suggested she may well run as the party’s candidate in the 2010 election.” Lapper even quoted a news magazine that compared Betancourt to Nelson Mandela.
She has already questioned the tactics of Colombian President Álvaro Uribe toward her former kidnapers, asking him to temper his “radical, extremist language of hate” against FARC.
Headline Links: Betancourt busy following rescue
“Freedom tastes sweet and Ingrid Betancourt is lapping it up with the same drive and determination that kept her alive in the Colombian jungle for six years, sometimes chained to a tree,” according to the Associated Press. She visited the French Senate and has been a near-constant fixture on the country’s news broadcasts.
Source: The Washington Post (free registration may be required)
Ingrid Betancourt insisted that President Uribe abate his “radical, extremist language of hate” in regard to FARC, American contractor Marc Gonsalves, who was rescued with Betancourt, called his kidnappers “terrorists with a capital ‘T,’” the Associated Press reports.
Source: Chicago Tribune
Background: ‘FARC Hostage Rescue Highlights Colombia’s Transformation’
Colombian forces fooled FARC into putting Betancourt and 14 other hostages onto a helicopter that took them to freedom on Wednesday, July 2. The operation boosted the image of conservative Colombian President Álvaro Uribe in his country and abroad.
Source: findingDulcinea
Key Player: Ingrid Betancourt
Ingrid Betancourt, a French citizen, was kidnapped along with her aide while campaigning in a FARC-controlled area in southern Colombia on Feb. 23, 2002. She had been a critic of the rebel group. For years the Colombian authorities did not attempt to rescue Betancourt at the request of her family, who feared for her safety. Born in Colombia in 1961, Betancourt “grew up in Paris where her father was a diplomat,” according to the BBC. She earned her French citizenship when she married Fabrice Delloye, a French diplomat. They had two children. In 1989, Betancourt returned to Colombia, and she became a senator in 1998 under the Green Oxygen Party, which she had formed.
Source: The BBC
Opinion & Analysis: Betancourt’s impact and future
Richard Lapper of the Financial Times suggests that Ingrid Betancourt may be setting her sites on the Colombian presidency once again. “La Semana, the influential news weekly, has even suggested that she could become a Colombian version of Nelson Mandela, the former South African president. That might not be as far-fetched as it seems.”
Source: Financial Times (free registration may be required)
In The Guardian, Yvonne Roberts describes Betancourt’s motherly persona: “In a period when motherhood is portrayed so often and so negatively, as a narrative of cruelty, loss and neglect, the face of Ingrid Betancourt when united with her lost children says what a thousand volumes can never adequately express: this is what it means to be a mother.”
Source: The Guardian
© 2009 Dulcinea Media, Inc.
