Tom Kruwis
In 2002, Ingrid Betancourt was campaigning around the country as leader of Oxígeno, the Green party, a young political organisation with a strong ecological and pacifist philosophy dedicated to fighting corruption in Colombia. That day, 23 February, she was due to appear in a remote village called San Vicente. At the last minute, her place on a military helicopter was cancelled. She decided to make the journey by car.
Ingrid Betancourt is small, slight, well-coutured. Formerly a Colombian presidential candidate, she spent six years in captivity, held in the jungle by the Farc, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of . When we meet in New York, two years after her rescue, the only outward sign of her ordeal Columbia is the rough crucifix she wears around her wrist – she fashioned it out of rope in the jungle – and, if you stare impertinently, some small marks around her neck where a chain once lay. For the last 18 months she has been working on a book, which has meant going back daily to her experiences as a hostage. "It was torture," says the 48-year-old. "It was very difficult to write."
Ingrid Betancourt is small, slight, well-coutured. Formerly a Colombian presidential candidate, she spent six years in captivity, held in the jungle by the Farc, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of . When we meet in New York, two years after her rescue, the only outward sign of her ordeal Columbia is the rough crucifix she wears around her wrist – she fashioned it out of rope in the jungle – and, if you stare impertinently, some small marks around her neck where a chain once lay. For the last 18 months she has been working on a book, which has meant going back daily to her experiences as a hostage. "It was torture," says the 48-year-old. "It was very difficult to write."
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