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. Ms. Pulecio was well-known in Bogota for her work in the creation of the Albergue, the first children's shelter in the nation. It is the best-known children's aid organization in the Colombian capital. 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)
The Betacourt 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, 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 tenure in the House of Representatives.
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 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 a seat in the House. 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, a lawyer, played a key role through her organizational skills and by 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, a huge ethics scandal erupted involving the president and the majority of elected officials, concerning enormous campaign contributions made by the drug cartels. Ms. Betancourt was a lone voice speaking out to reveal the corruption.
Protesting a rigged jury for the upcoming trial of the president, (composed of fellow representatives supportive of the president and also under suspician of accepting tainted money) Ms. Betancourt went on a hunger strike together with Representative Guillermo Martinez Guerra. Her strike continued for two weeks, until she was hospitalized. Initially demoralized by the need to finish her hunger strike unsuccessfully, she eventually realized that her fasting had created a trust of her among the people and a bond that eventually helped her win a Senate seat.
She went on to publicly accuse the president of not only dishonesty but also deliquency, providing proof of financial improprieties, as well as questioning the mysterious deaths of many of those scheduled to testify against him.
A New Political Party
Frustrated with the corruption of the existing political parties, in 1998 Ingrid Betancourt collected within one month the required 50,000 signatures (in fact a total of 70,000 was collected) to form a new political party. Oxygen became the party of hope, openness and youthful vitality. The party's motto was, appropriately, "Ingrid is Oxygen". Despite fraud at some of the polling places, Ms. Betancourt won a seat in the Senate with more votes than any other candidate in the country.(HarperCollins Publishers, 2002, 202)
Two months after her election to the Senate, Ingrid and Oxygen backed Andrés Pastrana Arango in his bid for the presidency. Reluctant at first, the backing came only after the signing of a pact that he would introduce an anti-corruption referendum within three months of being elected. Unfortunately, Pastrana did not keep his word, and it seemed to Senator Betancourt that four years had been lost.
Pursuit of the Presidency, Pursuit of Peace
Ingrid moved forward undeterred. She decided to make a bigger impact by running for President of Colombia in the 2002 elections. During her electoral campaign, Ingrid continued her determination to make Colombia a safe and prosperous country.
Ingrid's belief was that peace could not be sought without addressing openly the close ties between drug traffickers, paramilitaries, and guerillas. When drug trafficking is targeted, she believes, the financial supply channeled to corrupted politicians and terrorists will weaken and the perpetuation of violence that has crippled Columbia will be arrested.
In this pursuit, in 2002 she drew up three necessary conditions for peace:
- The denarcotization of Colombia - We need to weaken the drug traffic partnership with terrorism by making a commitment to fighting it the sine qua non for any peace talks.
- The enforcement of human rights laws - We need to reestablish government authority by severing the government's clandestine ties with the paramilitaries.
- Support from the international community - We need partners to confront the corrupt and very strong Colombian political force in power. (HarperCollins Publishers, 2002, 224)
FARC
Andres Pastrana had opened negotiations with FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Columbia,), the main guerilla group in Colombia. Soon after Pastrana's election to the presidency in 1998, he granted FARC seventeen thousand square miles of national territory to be used as a demilitarized zone. This was done in the name of peace, yet Pastrana did not require any commitment from the guerillas in return.
FARC has 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 into it, in order to avoid direct confrontation with government armed forces.
To demonstrate loyalty to her cause, in February 2002 Ingrid travelled to San Vincente, 600 kilometres south of Bogotà, a territory occupied by FARC, who since 1996 has fought against the government of Columbia to reign out the power. In spite of the fact that President Pastrana discouraged Ingrid from making this trip and refused to give her an escort, she felt a moral duty to be present among those people in difficulty.
Unfortunately this decision cost her dearly. On February 23, 2002 Ingrid Betancourt was kidnapped by FARC, along with Clara Rojas, her best friend and director of her electoral campaign.[3]
The Kidnapping
Several Colombian political figures continued to attempt to visit the demilitarized zone even as the peace talks ended. Most candidates for political office that intended to do so backed off when authorities warned them of the danger. Ingrid 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.
On February 23, 2002, when denied transport aboard a military helicopter that was heading to the zone, Senator Betancourt decided to head into the DMZ via ground transport, together with her presidential running-mate Clara Rojas and a handful of political aides. They were 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 continued her journey, being kidnapped by FARC, who have held her ever since.
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.
The Uribe administration (elected to the presidency in the 2002 elections) 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.
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 Situation
As of this writing, over four years have passed since Ms. Betancourt's kidnapping. There have been numerous talks and attempts at negotiation, but none have been effective. She is still being held somewhere in the jungles of Colombia.
Kidnapping is an industry in Colombia, as well as is assassination. Today Ingrid might not be alive, if it were not for her fame outside of her country. Three thousand persons are currently held hostage in Colombia, among several parliamentaries.
This courageous and determined woman who sacrificed everything she had for her country, is viewed by many of the common people as Colombia's modern-day patron saint. Ironically, shortly before her kidnapping she asked, "Now that I've arrived at this point, will they kill me, too?" Ms. Betancourt has always known the dangers of public life, but has moved forward in spite of them.
Writing
Ingrid Betancourt is known as a powerful and impassioned speaker. As well, she has written several books:
- Si Sabia (Yes, He Did Know) published in December 1996 in Columbia. Fearing that Colombia's history would be rewritten, as is often the case in totalitarian regimes, Ms. Betancourt penned this book as a mission to the truth of this era of history being preserved.
- until death do us part; My Struggle to Reclaim Columbia. Published in the United States in 2002, this was a memoir intitially published in France, under the title La rage au coeur ("Rage in the Heart"). It has since appeared in Spanish, in Colombia and elsewhere, as La rabia en el corazón.
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- Betancourt, Ingrid, until death do us part, My Struggle to Reclaim Colombia. New York, New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2002. ISBN 0060008903
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.
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