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Ingrid Betancourt and Clara Rojas
see also :
The South-American
Epic Tale of Aéropostale
Print a list of hostages
Ingrid Betancourt
and Clara Rojas
Mother of two children, elected Deputy, then Senator, and finally candidate for the Presidential elections of
Colombia, her country, Ingrid Betancourt has been held hostage by the FARC, one of the Columbian guerillas, with her campaign manager Clara Rojas, since February 23rd 2002.
The courage and will-power that Ingrid has shown in her fight against corruption and drug-handle in her country have made her world famous and greatly admired.
Daughter of a former Minister of Education and of a former Senator, she lived abroad throughout most of her childhood, mostly in France (her father was then Embassador of
Colombia for UNESCO), where she studied Political-Science.
In 1989, though she was leading a peaceful family life, she suddenly decides to to drop everything to come back to her country and to
react: her mother saw Luis Carlos Galán die under her very eyes, the 1989 Presidential candidate who represented the hopes of a radical change, by supporting the Treaty of extradition of drug dealers to the United States.
Her country, Columbia, is at the end of the rope, wounded by years of war. Few people dare to stand up against the marxist guerilla, the
paramilitaries, the drug cartels and the powerless or corrupted politicians to offer another vision to the
Colombian nation. Ingrid Betancourt decided to do it. She put aside her peaceful family life as an expatriate to return to her country and fight for a different future.
She helps her mother to be elected in the Senate, then joins the Ministry of Finance herself. After a few years, frustrated with the few results obtained, she decides to jump into politics with her friend Clara Rojas. She is elected Deputy. She will not stop to denounce the corrupption of the politicians, and in particular Ernesto Samper, whom she had mildly supported during the Presidential campaign of 1994.
She condemns corruption, violence, fights for regional development, and for the poor. Her life is threatened several times and she escapes from an attempt on her life. She is forced to expatriate her children. Newspapers often take side against her, odious accusations are made against her by her peers and exposed by guiltless journalists. She often has to defend her honnor in public and always comes out clean.
She is first elected Deputy in 1994, then Senator in 1998. In 1998, she starts her own party, ”Oxygen”, and applies for Senate. She is the candidate who, against all expectations, wins the
highest amount of votes on a national level.
She is soon convinced that the only way to change the system is to be elected President in May 2002. She resigns from her position of Senator at the end of 2001, and leaves the semicircel shouting ”when I am President, I will fire all of you!”.
On the 23rd of February, at the very start of her campaign, Ingrid and her campaign manager, Clara Rojas, are kidnapped by the FARC on the road to San Vincente…