Ingrid Betancourt: the former hostage is running for the presidential election in Colombia


And one more candidate, in Colombia. Twenty years after her kidnapping when she was already running for president, Ingrid Betancourt persists and signs and announced this Tuesday, January 18, her wish to participate in the Colombian presidential election scheduled for May 19, 2022.

” Today, i am here to finish what i started with many of you in 2002. » Twenty years after being kidnapped by the Marxist guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) while campaigning for the presidential election, Ingrid Betancourt returns to the electoral fight. “I will work tirelessly from now on, from sunrise to sunset, to be your president », announced the ex-hostage at a press conference on Tuesday, January 18. The 59-year-old Franco-Colombian, at the head of the small environmentalist party Vert Oxygène will submit to a centrist primary, organized by the Coalition of Hope, before being able to claim the presidency of Colombia in the election scheduled for May 19.

“I believe in a world with a woman’s vision”, declared the mother of the family who also explained the political ideas that she wishes to carry to succeed in winning against the favorite of the polls, the former guerrilla Gustavo Petro, who was mayor of Bogota. “For decades we had only bad options: extreme right, extreme left. The time has come to have a center option », launched the candidate who wants fight against insecurity and pollution. Twenty years ago, Ingrid Betancourt had paid dearly for her political commitment, since she had been kidnapped by the FARC in February 2002. After long years of captivity, the politician had finally been released after being rescued during a a military operation in the summer of 2018.

Years of captivity that do not make her give up

“I have dreamed for seven years of living this moment, of breathing the air of France, of being with you”, she said on her return to France at Villacoublay airport on July 4, 2008, welcomed by Nicolas Sarkozy and Carla Bruni. “France is my home, you are my family”, she then launched. However, it is in Colombia that she wishes to become president. During the press conference for her declaration of candidacy this Tuesday, January 18, Ingrid Betancourt returned to the $36 million in financial repair ordered at the beginning of January by the American justice against the deceased FARC, for their responsibility in his kidnapping. This is the result of a complaint filed in 2018 by his son Lorenzo. “We have sometimes got into the habit of thinking that asking for justice is abusive (…). I have come today to ask that every son, every daughter, every father, every mother be compensated, compensated and compensated”, pleaded Ingrid Betancourt.

Article written in collaboration with 6Medias

Photo credits: Meigneux / Veeren / Guibbaud / Bestimage



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