Last week there was some news about hostages that have been held by the FARC for years now, the most well-known being Ingrid Betancourt who was captured five years ago and three US contractors who have been held for four years. There are many, many others, of course, who get little or no publicity. Venezuelan President Chavez had been negotiating with the FARC for the release of hostages, with the blessing of Colombian President Uribe, but Uribe cut Chavez off last week, and about the same time a video showing Ingrid Betancourt and the three Americans, which had been made recently, was found when some FARC guys were arrested in Bogota.
All the news reports say that this is the first proof in three years that Ingrid and the Americans are alive. But last spring just before I left Bogota, a hostage escaped, and he said he had been held with her and the Americans, and confirmed that they were still alive.
But, this guy was a Colombian soldier, which basically means a poor schmuck whose family had not been rich enough to buy his way out of military service, so does this explain why there are no references to his story during this current time? He had been with Ingrid off and on for years, and with the Americans, but now nobody seems to be talking about him. Even at the time that he escaped, there were many unanswered questions in the news that was released, so the public never did get the whole story. Of course, when we can’t get the truth from our news agencies in a country like the US, imagine how much harder it is in a place like Colombia.
From what I’ve learned about Ingrid Betancourt, mostly from reading but also a little from some people I’ve met who are involved in or at least pretty knowledgeable Colombian politics, she seems to be incredibly sincere in her desire to fight corruption in every instance and at every level in Colombia, which is pretty unique there. Even the politicians with the best intentions in Colombia are often in it at least partly to see what they can get for themselves, and she is apparently a true maverick. She was running for president when she was captured, and given almost no chance of even making a dent in the race, but if she ever does get free, her name recognition and history now might actually give her a fighting chance.
My problem with the Sarkozy (the French George W Bush) puffing up his chest to talk about getting her free is that he’s interested in getting himself some street cred on the world scene. He’s interersted, by the way, because Ingrid hold dual Colombian/French citizenship. The same with our own GWB, who spouts off on occasion about the three US “contractors” who’ve been held for a while. Nobody seems to talk much about the many Colombians similarly situated, and I have a feeling that if Ingrid and the three Americans were freed, the French GWB and the American GWB and the Colombian GWB (Uribe) would declare it a total victory–job done! The thing is, I have a feeling Ingrid would disagree.
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