Ingrid Betancourt seeks Colombian presidency again

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Ingrid Betancourt, the former presidential candidate, held hostage for six years by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), announced Tuesday that she would seek her country’s presidency again.

The announcement comes nearly two decades after Betancourt was kidnapped by the now-extinct FARC while campaigning for Colombia’s presidency for the Oxygen Green Party, a group she founded when she was a congresswoman.

“Exactly 20 years ago, I was kidnapped as a candidate,” Betancourt said in Bogota. “Today, I am here to finish what I started, with the conviction that Colombia is now ready to change course.”

Betancourt spent six years in guerrilla camps in the Amazon jungle, where rebels sometimes tied her to a tree with chains to prevent her from escaping. During that time, some videos of her were made public as proof of life, in which the politician asked the authorities to investigate the circumstances that led to her kidnapping and asked the government to resume peace talks with the FARC.

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The former candidate became a symbol of international campaigns seeking the resumption of peace talks in Colombia and the release of other FARC hostages.

Her kidnapping ended in 2008 through a military operation in which Colombian soldiers disguised as humanitarian personnel rescued her and other hostages without firing a shot.

Betancourt retired from public life after her release. Much of her time was spent with her family in France.

However, she returned to Colombia’s political scene last year as the country began to prepare for presidential elections in May.

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