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Idealism and a determined woman

Farida Shaikh appreciates an autobiography
IN 1986 Virgilio Barco, previously mayor of Bogota, is elected president of the republic. He wants to reform the economy and wage an all out war against the drug cartels. Carlos Galian 46, is assassinated. Ernesto Samper becomes president through the money supplied by drug traffickers.
After the initial publication of the book in 2062, Colombia's former president sued Ingrid Betancourt. He denied any financial transaction with the Cali cartel or dealings with Colombian drug lords or the killing of witnesses to the impeachment proceedings against him. Later a defamation campaign was also launched by the press to the effect that Colt Company had financed Betancourt's election. She was caricatured as Ingrid 'Betancolt.'
Colombia is rated as one of the most corrupt countries in the world, has always been headed by factional leaders.... real leaders have all been assassinated ...and mediocre men get themselves elected ...to enrich themselves.’ Thus Ingrid Betancourt. She was campaigning to become president on an anti-corruption ticket.
Betancourt was taken hostage on 23 February 2002 by the leftist Fuerzas Armadas Revolutionaries de Colombia or Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). After six and a half years in captivity, on 2 July 2008, she and 14 other hostages were rescued by Colombian soldiers posing as workers of a non-government organisation.
Former President and television
journalist Andres Pastrana negotiated with the guerrillas in what came to be known as the 'Pastrana method'. In his election euphori, Pastrana had granted 17000 square miles of national territory to FARC. The guerrillas gave nothing in return; the contracting party became a hostage to the warlords. FARC smuggled in 10,000 weapons through pipelines in Peru, leading ultimately to the downfall of that country's President Alberto Fujimori.
Betancourt entered politics at the age of 32 and sought the endorsement of the Liberal Party to which her mother belonged; her father was in the Conservative Party. The ideological difference between the two parties was small; both had an equal number of corrupt officials. Her aunt discouraged her, as a woman, from becoming involved in messy politics. She responded, 'We want clean politics, and we are not going to quit, we'll go all the way against corruption, against the mafia's takeover of our institutions, of democracy, all the way.'
The young politician sought to bring about changes from within; she believed that 'we can't hand over the country's destiny to men who take no interest in the misery of the Colombian people, who think only of enriching themselves.'
Ingrid Betancourt is described as 'Courageous, heroic.. .In the name of our shared humanity, I ask you to listen to her,' by the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize 1986, Elie Wiesel, best known for his
autobiography La Nuit— Night, 1960, a 127-page book on his own imprisonment
This book, the autobiography of Betancourt, is dedicated to her children, is labeled as 'deeply personal', with messages of hope, courage and change. She received threatening letters; and was told, 'Doctora, we have already paid the sicarios Sicarios are poor young men
on motor bikes hired to kill people for a small sum.' Betancourt summarized, 'You are going to kill me ...'
She gave up a life of comfort and security - -- her happiness was meaningless to her being away from her country.
Equally accurate would be to label the book as a political thriller similar to Tom Clancy's Clear and Present Danger that narrates the operations of Colombian drug lords and the murder of the US ambassador.
Betancourt was a senator in Colombia's national legislature, founder of a political party, and was fighting for democracy which was 'being sacrificed for the well-being of the few...international criminals determined policy and political assassination....a way of life.' Her political party Oxygen was floated before her election to the senate and became 'an unavoidable force on the political chessboard.'
Betancourt's election campaign was based on her struggle against corruption. Her photo was posted alongside a picture of a condom, with the slogan, 'The best way to protect us against corruption Corruption is the AIDS of Colombia. In addition to the real AIDS, we're suffering from corruption.' She was fighting for one of the 18 seats in Bogota's House of Representatives.
Her parents, particularly her father, was shocked over her activities, and said it was disgraceful. However, she was able to overcome her anonymity; she linked herself with journalists who interviewed
her for the newspapers and television. She listed the names of corrupt officials. Neither the Liberal Party nor presidential candidate Samper gave her any support for her campaign. She managed to obtain $5 million worth of financial support from an industrialist in Bogota.
Betancourt won, by the highest number of votes, and proved that Colombia was ready to combat corruption. This was four years after her separation from her husband. She agreed to work on a commission set up to prepare a code of ethics. She learnt that the purpose of this exercise was only to prepare but not to execute, that principles did not matter much in Colombia. She prescribed Draconian sanctions for fraud which would lead to expulsion from the party. The code was nicknamed 'Ingrid's Code.'
Betancourt has been hugely influenced by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Pablo Neruda and other Latin American writers. She completed her education in France, married and later separated from a French diplomat in 1990. He never wanted to set foot in Colombia.
Betancourt’s memoirs are enlightening in many ways, particularly in the context of Bangladesh, where corruption in the public sphere has played a dominant role, where democracy and the electoral process are always for the benefit and betterment of the elite in society.
Farida Shaikh is a critic and member of The Reading Circle.