Rage in the heart
.
Twenty years ago, then senator, Ingrid Betancourt published under this title the story of a political journey strewn with pitfalls.
“
You know how powerful the drug cartels are in our
country,” declared the Franco-Colombian in the work written in French, addressed to her adopted country
.
“
You sometimes hear about the killings and the political scandals they cause.
But behind these mafia organizations, there is a brave and proud people who want to get out of this infernal gear.
".
The same year, she was a presidential candidate in Colombia with an unprecedented program, centered on the fight against corruption and ecology.
An ambition reduced to nothing when, a few weeks later, she was taken hostage by the FARC guerrillas.
Read alsoColombia struggles to heal the wounds of 50 years of civil war with the Farc
Six years of captivity in the heart of the Amazon jungle will make him take, after his release, a forced retirement from political life.
Twenty years later, here she is back.
Within the centrist coalition, she announced on January 18 her intention to participate in the centrist primaries.
In the line of sight, the presidential election, scheduled for spring 2022. "
I will work tirelessly from now on, from sunrise to sunset, to be your president
," she told the Colombian press.
Against corruption, against all odds
Was this return to politics predictable? On several occasions, Ingrid Betancourt had mentioned it in half-words. As early as 2014, she said she said she was again "
ready
" to throw herself into the "
political arena
". "
However, I will certainly not return if I have the feeling of being exploited by the political system
".
It must be said that, among the Betancourts, politics is inscribed in the genes.
Yolanda Pulecio, the mother, is a deputy, senator and then ambassador.
Gabriel Betancourt, he was Minister of Education, before being appointed deputy director general of Unesco, then Colombian ambassador to France.
It was therefore in Paris that Ingrid spent a large part of her childhood.
She will integrate the course of international relations at Sciences Po. Rue Saint-Guillaume, she meets the one who will become her husband, Fabrice Delloye.
They have two children together, Melanie and Lorenzo.
Read alsoRodrigo Londoño: "
The social conflict is still there
"
An event will trigger his return to his native country. The assassination in the middle of the presidential race of the anti-corruption candidate Luis Carlos Galan, in 1989. The "
last honest politician in Colombia
" will say Ingrid's mother, very invested in her campaign. The whole country was then undermined by a violent civil war. The guerrillas, from the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (Farc) to the National Liberation Army (ELN), have waged a merciless struggle against the state and control drug cartels for almost forty years. Bogota has become a real Beirut for its assassinations in the middle of the street and the attacks committed by the "
narcos
". A large part of the political class is sold to the mafia.
After a short stint at the Ministries of Finance and Foreign Trade, Ingrid obtained the nomination of the Liberal Party in the legislative elections in 1994.
She quickly imposed her mark, betting on a disruptive campaign.
As a symbol, it brandishes and distributes condoms, its weapons to “
protect Colombia from corruption
”.
A success.
She is brilliantly elected to the House of Representatives.
Ingrid is not afraid. In the hemicycle, facing the media, she denounces loud and clear the "
corruption of the ruling class
", up to the president himself, Ernesto Samper, accused of having financed his campaign with the support of the barons of the Cali cartel . The case is colossal: a hundred deputies and more than half of the senators are implicated. The investigation is punctuated by assassinations, which Ingrid, live on national television, attributes to the head of state himself. To protest against the conclusions of a commission of inquiry which absolve the Head of State, she leads a hunger strike.
Disgusted with the intrinsic corruption of the Liberal Party, she slams the door, and founds, with the help of her second husband, the publicist Juan Carlos Lecompte, her own party: Oxigeno Verde, affiliated with the European Greens.
Under these colors, carried by her media successes, she was comfortably elected to the Senate in 1998. But her fight has a cost.
The Betancourt family moves under constant protection of bodyguards, in armored cars.
Twice, the MP escaped an assassination attempt.
Faced with death threats, her children were sent to France.
Six years in the hands of the FARC
On February 23, 2002, Ingrid is a presidential candidate. Despite the warnings of those around her, she sets off by car, heading for San Vicente del Caguán, 300km south of Bogota, an area at the heart of the former demilitarized empire of the FARC. On the way, an ambush awaits him. Within minutes, Ingrid Betancourt and her campaign manager Clara Rojas were taken hostage by the guerrillas. The sequestration will last 6 years.
Freed in 2008 by a lightning operation by the Colombian army, she took refuge in France, where her friend Dominique de Villepin, then Minister of Foreign Affairs, had made her release a matter of state.
She then slips away.
Between London, Paris and Bogota, his communication is locked, limited to a few interviews.
In a new work,
Even the silence has an end
(2010), she recounts the years of detention, the multiple attempts to flee, her revival for her faith, renewed by the long captivity.
To read alsoIngrid Betancourt facing her captors: “I found the hard and cold looks endured during six years of captivity”
Twenty years later, the now candidate has forgiven her jailers. “
I am here to finish what I started with many of you in 2002. With the conviction that Colombia is now ready to change course
,” proclaims the candidate. In addition to ecology, her fight this time will be that of the place of women, but also of reparation for the victims of the civil war. “
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
, ”she insists.
How will Colombians welcome this return to politics?
In the Colombian press, there is talk of new hope for the centrist Esperanza coalition, which is running out of steam.
The double-edged popularity of the ex-hostage, sometimes hailed for her courage, sometimes shouted down for her behavior deemed impudent, strongly criticized by her former prison mates and even her ex-husband, makes her an undeniable event. Politics.