Ingrid Betancourt
Íngrid Betancourt (Pulecio), a former Senator and Presidential candidate in the nation of Colombia, is known as one of the most outspoken and daring anti-corruption activists in her nation. She is also a hostage of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), having been kidnapped on February 23, 2002 while campaigning for the presidency. As of the fourth anniversary of her abduction, Betancourt was still being held.
Ms. Betancourt is perhaps Colombia's most famous hostage, especially internationally. The daughter of Colombia's ambassador to UNESCO (United Nation's Eductional, Scientific and Cultural Organization)— who himself could have had a shot at the presidency in the 1970s — and a beauty contestant-turned-social-activist, Ingrid Betancourt was raised with both luxury and privilege.[[1]] At the age of twenty-nine, then happily married to a French diplomat, she returned to her native country, gave up her life of luxury and began dedicating her life to freeing her people from the "violent corruption that's strangled Colombia for decades". [[2]]
She is respected internationally as a courageous and determined woman who sacrificed everything she had for her country.
Family Life and Education
Ingrid Betancourt was born December 25, 1961 in Bogotá, Colombia. Her mother, Yolanda Pulecio, was a former Miss Colombia who later served in Congress, representing the poor southern neighborhoods of Bogotá. Her father, Gabriel Betancourt, was a Colombian diplomat, posted to the embassy in Paris where Ingrid spent her early years. Her father had also served as Colombia's Minister of Education, as well as on President John F. Kennedy's Alliance for Progress. (HarperCollins Publishers, 2002, 14)
Their home in Paris was frequently visited by leading Colombian and international personalities and intellectuals. Ingrid was definitely influenced by the conversations she overheard among them. However, she recounts her Portuguese nanny, Anita, as a strong influence that kept her grounded. "Ingrid," she said "you must not forget that the world does not resemble the one you're living in today. Reality is painful, life is difficult, and someday it may be painful and difficult for you too. You must know this and prepare yourself for it." (HarperCollins Publishers, 2002, 18)
When Ingrid was thirteen years old her family returned to Colombia. During this time her Father counseled her, "Colombia has given us a great deal. It's thanks to Colombia that you have come to know Europe, that you've gone to the best schools and lived in a cultural luxury no young Colombian will ever experience. Because you've had so many opportunites, you now have a debt to Colombia. Don't forget that." (HarperCollins Publishers, 2002, 22)
After Ingrid completed high school in Bogota, she returned to France where she attended the Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris (known as Sciences Po), an elite higher education institute. While a student there she met her future husband, Fabrice, who was a commercial attache at France's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. (HarperCollins Publishers, 2002, 34)
Marriage and Children
After graduating from Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris, Ingrid married Fabrice, a young man in France's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. They had two children, Melanie and Lorenzo. Fabrice was in the French diplomatic service, and they lived in various places, including Quito, Ecuador, Auckland, New Zealand, Seychelle Islands, and Los Angeles, California.
The assassination of Luis Carlos Galán in August 1989, a candidate for the Colombian presidency running on an anti-drug-trafficking platform, impacted Ingrid so much that she returned to her native Colombia determined to do something to help her country.
Ingrid left her family in Los Angeles in January 1990, willing to endure the suffering caused by that seperation, but understanding it was the price necessary for the liberation of her people. Eventually, Ingrid and Fabrice divorced.
In February 1997, Ingrid wed Juan Carlos Lecompte, a famous Colombian advertising agent whom she met during her political campaign.
Public Life
In 1990, Ingrid began working in Colombia's Finance Ministry. While there she worked on a number of major issues vital to the health of the people, the environment, and the economy. These included such things as development of the Pacific Coast, pursuing clean water, safe housing and local hospitals. She developed a plan for a tax-free zone which would have eliminated the need for smuggling imported goods. A third project was developing and honoring patents, which would have increased foreign trade, helping the country to rise out of poverty. All of these proposals had been thwarted or undermined when brought to her superiors.
Elected Office
She and her friend and coworker, Clara Rojas, eventually came to understand that the way to bring progress for Colombians is not through proposing solutions from a technocratic standpoint, but to gain the power to implement those solutions. Knowing little about politics, they nonetheless decided that was the only answer. Thus, in 1994 she resigned from her post in the Finance Ministry in order to run for a seat in the House of Representatives. As Ingrid explained to their first group of potential backers,
- "We've been working in the wings of government for three years now. On each of my assignments, I've proposed solutions directed solely toward the interest of the country. However, with few exceptions my proposals have been cut back, diverted, or simply set aside, by the very people we've elected to make such reforms: the politicians! The Colombian people feel powerless when confronted by these corrupt elected officials. I want to show Colombians that it doesn't have to be that way, and that politics can be practiced differently." (HarperCollins Publishers, 2002, 75 & 76)
During her first campaign, Ingrid distributed condoms on the street corners of Bogota with the motto that she would be like a condom against corruption. Though a virtual unknown, Ingrid was elected to the Senate. She had received great support from the south of Bogotá, thanks partially to the name recognition from her mother, who helped her campaign. During this campaign, Clara Rojas played a key role by organizing things and training pollsters to detect fraud, which until that time had been rampant.
Ms. Betancourt's first act after her election was to author a detailed Code of Ethics for the Liberal Party. Article by article and chapter by chapter, she placed an emphasis on strict regulations of financing. (HarperCollins Publishers, 2002, 93) In the incredibly corrupt House of Representatives, Ingrid Betancurt soon became viewed as a traitor for her efforts at reform.
During her term, she fought against the Samper administration, which was accused of corruption and accepting drug money for the electoral campaign.
Presidential Bid
Ingrid ran for president in the 1998 election that was ultimately won by Andrés Pastrana Arango. As part of her strategy she founded a political party, Oxígeno Verde (Green Oxygen Party). Pastrana persuaded her to drop out and endorse him, and she campaigned on his behalf. She claims he later reneged on the promises he made to her when she agreed to drop out.
After the 1998 election, Ingrid wrote a book, a memoir. Initially, it could not be published immediately in Colombia, perhaps because of the polemics against former president Samper and others, so it came out first in France as La rage au coeur ("Rage in the Heart"). It has since appeared in Spanish, in Colombia and elsewhere, as La rabia en el corazón, and in English as Until Death Do Us Part (2002).
Meeting with FARC
As part of her campaign in 2002 (the election won by Álvaro Uribe Vélez), Ingrid wanted to go to the demilitarized zone (DMZ) at San Vicente del Caguán to meet with the FARC. This had not been unusual — many public figures took the opportunity afforded by the DMZ, created by Pastrana to satisfy a FARC precondition for negotiations, to meet with the FARC.
However, after more than three years of negotiations, the peace talks were reaching a stalemate. From the beginning, the FARC had not agreed to hold a truce for the duration of the negotiations, nor to an oversight of the peace talks and the DMZ by different representatives of the international community. Though the DMZ was supposed to be a "laboratory for peace", in practice the FARC continued its kidnapping, military attacks, involvement in the drug trade, intimidation and displacement of the civilian population, and the purchasing of weaponry. Critics considered the DMZ to have been turned into a safe haven in which the FARC imposed its will as law, committing 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 were they were imprisioned, many of them having been kidnapped for economic extorsion, other 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 turboengine 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 number of its passengers were kidnapped, including one member of Congress. As a consequence, President Pastrana cancelled the talks with the FARC and revoked the DMZ, arguing that the FARC had violated 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.
The Kidnapping
Several Colombian political figures continued to attempt to visit the demilitarized zone even as the talks ended. 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 to be 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 meant that the government was rendering its resources to Betancourt's private political interests. Agreeing to Betancourt's request would also mean that the government was either backing a candidate for the presidential elections or 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 her presidential running-mate Clara Rojas and a handful of political aides. On February 23 2002, she was stopped at the last military checkpoint before going into the former DMZ. Military officers insisted to her and to her party not to continue in their effort to reach San Vicente del Caguan, the village used for the peace talks. Intense fighting was taking place inside the DMZ and the security situation was rapidly deteriorating. Betancourt dismissed their warning and she continued her journey, being kidnapped by FARC, who have held her ever since. Ingrid still appeared in the ballot for the presidential elections, as 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", numbering around 60, 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 cease-fire, 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 have come to strongly reject any potential rescue operations, in part due to the tragic death of the governor of Antioquia department, Guillermo Gaviria Correo, 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.
Current negotiations
In August 2004, after several false-starts and in the face of mounting pressure from relatives, former Liberal presidents Alfonso López Michelsen especially and also Ernesto Samper Pizano (who Ingrid had criticized) and, as shown in recent polls [3], the growing majority popular backing in favor of a humanitarian exchange (more than 60% would consider Colombia a "better country" if the exchange took place), the Uribe government seems to have gradually relaxed its position, announcing that it has given the FARC a formal proposal on July 23, in which it offers to free 50 to 60 jailed rebels in exchange for the political and military hostages held by the left-wing FARC group (not including economic hostages as well, 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, and then the FARC would release the hostages in its possession, including Ingrid Betancourt. The proposal would have been carried out with the backing and support of the French and Swiss governments, which publicly supported it once it was revealed.
The move has been signalled 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. [4] [5]
The FARC released a communique, dated August 20 but apparently published publicly only on August 22, in which they denied having received the proposal earlier through the mediation of Switzerland (as the government had stated) and, while making note of the fact that a proposal had been made by Uribe's administration and that it hoped that common ground could eventually be reached, criticized it because they believe that any deal should allow them to decide how many of its jailed comrades should be freed and that they should return to the rebel ranks. [6]
On September 5, what has been considered as a sort of FARC counter proposal was revealed in the Colombian press. The FARC-EP is proposing 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 Pizano administration (1994–1998) which allowed the rebel group to free some captured police and military. 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 travelling 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 as the location for the "security zone" among one of the municipalties of Peñas Coloradas, El Rosal or La Tuna, all in Caquetá department, where the FARC has clear political influence. It has been speculated by retired military analysts that the FARC could potentially set up 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, Ingrid'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."[7]
On February, 2006 "France urged Colombian Marxist rebels on Wednesday to seize the chance offered by a European-proposed prisoner swap, accepted by Bogota, and free dozens it has 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 Ingrid Betancourt and other detainees" [8]
Jacques Thomet book
A new book released in January 2006, Ingrid Betancourt, histoire de cœur ou raison d'état ? by Jacques Thomet, sparked a debate in France about the real reasons for the French government's involvement in the Ingrid Betancourt affair. The book claims that personal relationships between French foreign minister Dominique de Villepin (later prime minister) and the Betancourt sisters Astrid and Ingrid [9] were the main driving force for the French government's involvement in the case and the cause of several mistakes that have prolonged her captivity in the hands of the FARC guerrillas.
External links
- http://www.ingridbetancourt.com Official site in French and Spanish
- http://www.betancourt.info/ : comprehensive info on Ingrid Betancourt and the campaign for her liberation (in French - but the site has pages in nine languages - click on the appropriate flag at the top of the main page). Press articles about Human Rights issues in Colombia are posted daily in French, Spanish and English.
- Dans la Jungle, a song by Renaud for Ingrid Betancourt.
de:Ingrid Betancourt es:Íngrid Betancourt fr:Ingrid Betancourt nl:Ingrid Betancourt pl:Ingrid Betancourt pt:Ingrid Betancourt
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