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Yolanda Pulecio has been living a nightmare for 44 months. This native of Colombia has been in the headlines since her daughter, former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt was kidnapped on 23 February 2002 by FARC, led by Manuel Marulanda, alias Tirofijo.

"I don’t believe that a greater sorrow exists not only for a mother but also for all of the family. We have been taken hostage and just like her we are worn out by suffering and we are going back and forth from hope to despair", declared Yolanda Pulecio in a phone interview with CRONICAS DE HOY.

Yolanda Pulecio's despair comes form the cruel silence of the FARC who have not given any news of Ingrid since August 2003, when they broadcast the last video in which her daughter appeared captive. Since then it has been impossible to confirm whether her daughter is still alive and whether they are going to take pity on her and her children and free her.

"I send her messages on two radio stations that are the only link with the hostages that we know they can hear. One of these transmitters works every Saturday at midnight and is known under the name "The Voices of Hostages" by Radio Caracol. The other broadcasts everyday at 5 a.m. through the RCN channel".

Her voice breaks up in tears, Yolanda tells us that since that date two years ago, she has continued to wait for news of her daughter: but added to the sorrow caused by the lack of news is the lack of sensitivity of President Alvaro Uribe, whose policy of "firm hand with the guerrilla and drug trafficking" prevents any resolution to the problem of the hostages.

Recovering herself, Yolanda Pulecio does not hide her feelings of powerlessness due to the lack of information of what has been done until now by the Colombian government in seeking a dialogue with the guerrilla to bring about a humanitarian exchange.

"What's happening now is killing me! I am very sad to have to say this, but I do not see any willingness on the part of the government to negotiate a humanitarian exchange. The government has no political will; otherwise the hostage would already be free.

The president is playing with us and refuses the humanitarian exchange in order to show that he is stronger than FARC. For him the situation is only a political game, but for us, who are caught up in this situation, it is very cruel".

RESENTMENT. Questioned about the reason for the meeting she and other relatives of hostages had with the President last July, she relates: " We wanted to know what the government was doing and what were its intentions. That day I told him, Mr President, Ingrid has been kidnapped for three years, seven months; how is it possible that you, who visited me at home the day after you were elected and who had promised me that you would operate this humanitarian exchange, have allowed all this time go by without doing anything? He replied that he had sent a letter to the guerrilla but this letter had never arrived because they had never tried to find lines of communication with FARC. I asked him for a copy of that letter but until now I have never received anything."

After that Yolanda remained silent for some moments, then she told us that she felt both confused and relieved. On the one hand, the Colombian government had never shown real interest in helping those kidnapped, but on the other hand, there had been great desire on the part of the French government who were looking at other ways of putting an end to this nightmare.

"Uribe himself asked me to contact the French government, taking advantage of my visit to Paris in August and I was asked to speak to certain members of the French government led by Jacques Chirac to ask them for their cooperation to make contact

with FARC, as my daughter has dual French-Colombian nationality. Uribe told me that he would convey to the French government his intention to bring to reality the humanitarian exchange."

"So I did what the President asked me to do and I actually had a n interview with the Prime Minister, Dominique de Villepin. Who promised to intercede in order to bring about the liberation of my daughter".

"The most disturbing and the most hurtful has been the reaction of Uribe. After I had done all he asked me to, he sent a letter of protest two weeks ago to the French Ambassadress, [Camille Rohou], criticising her for talking to FARC and seeking a way whereby the hostages could be freed."

"As regards France, it is a cause of shame to me because I cannot believe that the Colombian President could be two-faced. The day I met him, I told him that I did not wish to see him again and that I hated him, so great was my sorrow. Uribe told me that he hated no one and that I replied that it was since I had seen how he behaved that I had learned to hate him."

FRUSTRATION. Without hiding her disappointment as regards the way in which the government of her country had acted, Yolanda Pulecio went further and indicated that the Uribe administration had prevented the offers of help coming from outside the country in seeking a solution to freeing those held by the guerrilla.

"When Uribe became president he stated that the United Nations could intervene to give some help, but when the UN started to do this, the President asked, for no reason, that the UN representative be replaced. Then it was the Catholic Church who wanted to intercede, but when an interview was arranged in the forest between the members of the guerrilla and Monsignor Castro, the President sent troops to the very same place. FARC then sent a message to Monsignor Castro so that he would not go to that location, telling him that there were injured people there and that he would be risking his life if he went. And now the same thing has happened with the French offer of help."

The mother of the former Presidential candidate has not hidden her anger in the face of the indifference of the authorities of her country regarding this crisis in which so many families have been experiencing for eight years now waiting for the problem of kidnappings to be resolved.

" I am terrified by the idea of a military rescue operation, that fills me with panic. I have begged the president not to attempt a to organise a military rescue operation either for my daughter or for the other hostages, because that would condemn them to death and it would be like playing Russian roulette with their lives">

According to Ingrid's mother not only has she got the support of the French government but also that of the Catholic Church and the backing of two former Colombian Presidents, Alfonso Lopez Michelsen (1974-1978),"whom I admire because he is 91 years old and is not seeking anything for himself, and of Ernesto Samper (1994-19978), in whom I have not much trust because of the differences he had with Ingrid".

Asked about the dilemma involved in reconciling a mother's sorrow with the responsibility of Uribe as Chief of State, Ingrid's mother pointed out that "his responsibility is to watch over all Colombians, but his first priority must be to look after those who are in danger of death".

Ingrid Betancourt Pulecio

Born; 25 December 1961, in Bogotá, Colombia.

Status: Married

Children: Melanie and Lorenzo

Career; She was the assistant to the Minister for Finance and Public Credit, and also assistant to the Minister for External Business, then a National Assembly Deputy representing Bogotá (1994-1998)

Senator (1998-2002) and Leader and Presidential candidate for the Green Oxygen Party.

Kidnapped: 23 February 2002 when she was going to San Vicente del Calguan during the presidential election campaign, three days after the breakdown of peace talks between the previous government and FARC. 23 October 2005 she will have been in captivity for three years and eight months.

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