Ingrid Betancourt had her first presidential campaign interrupted in 2002 by a kidnapping by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). She was imprisoned for six years, until an army operation rescued her. Twenty years later, the former liberal congresswoman is again trying to occupy the same position.
At first, Betancourt would be part of a center alliance, but disagreements with another member pushed her away from the group, and she will run independently in elections that are still very uncertain, which, this Sunday (13), sees the holding of primaries of the main coalitions, in addition to the legislative process.
Who leads the polls so far is the leftist Gustavo Petro. For the center, ex-candidate Sergio Fajardo, ex-rector of the Universidad de los Andes Alejandro Gaviria and ex-senator Juan Manuel Galán are vying for a spot. The weakened right linked to former president Alvaro Uribe will also define its candidate.
Betancourt shares sympathies in Colombia. Her story of resilience in enduring captivity is admired, but there are those who take a bad look at the fact that she, who belongs to one of the richest families in the country, asked to be placed at the front of the line of those who would receive state compensation in reason for the kidnappings of the guerrilla now transformed into a political party. she spoke to sheet by videoconferencing.
Mrs. spent six years kidnapped by the FARC. How has this experience transformed you personally? It was a life lesson, in which I learned that nothing is impossible. They spent that time telling me that I would die in the jungle, that I would never leave or, if I did, that I would be too old. I was told this every day, and it’s hard to keep up the strength not to believe it was the truth.
On the other hand, the same experience brought Operation Jaque [organizada pelo Exército, ela permitiu, em julho de 2008, a liberação de 15 sequestrados, entre os quais Betancourt]. The soldiers who accepted to be part of it knew they might not make it out alive, and that touched me deeply—that Colombia is capable of such things. And they saved us. It’s almost a parable.
And from a political point of view, what changed from Ingrid 20 years ago to today? I believe it was a policy very focused on specific, parochial problems in Colombia, concerned with naming corrupt politicians, but looking less at the whole thing. Today I try to see the country’s problems in a more global way, inserted in issues that involve the region, the world. The fact that we’ve been seen as a troubled country for so long, because of the violence, because we’re the biggest cocaine exporters on the planet, is not something we can get rid of overnight. There is karma and it is necessary to transcend it, to offer the world a different vision, of prosperity, of social equality.
The Ingrid of today has a lot of the Ingrid of more than 20 years ago, because she still believes that the problem of corruption is central. But I see less of a personalist vision, of trying to investigate which people are corrupt, and more of understanding the corruption system in order to be able to dismantle it.
And where would it start? With the fight against poverty. With the pandemic, we have 2 million Colombians who were in the middle class and are now poor. FAO data [órgão das Nações Unidas para a alimentação] place us among the countries that could suffer serious hunger crises in the coming years.
The pandemic was an aggravating factor, but that was already a problem. People displaced by internal conflicts already number more than 6 million. Expelled from their lands by the clashes, they increase the poor outskirts of large cities. Yes, they are an important part of a structural poverty that we cannot face, in which we have 50% informality. That is, in which the job is not a job, has no social guarantee, legality, is subject to abuse, blackmail and extortion.
Mrs. at first he was part of the Centro Esperanza coalition, but he decided to leave it. Because? The idea of center is a political reality and, at the same time, a frustration. Colombians, historically, are more centrally located. And today more than ever they want to free themselves from extremist ideologies. That’s why we concentrated forces of the center on one front, with a view to this presidential election.
I believe that there are people of great value in this coalition, such as [o ex-senador] Juan Manuel Galán, no less than the son of Luis Carlos Galán Sarmiento [ícone do liberalismo, assassinado num comício em 1989], a man who wanted to transform Colombia profoundly. Or Sergio Fajardo [ex-prefeito de Medellín e ex-governador de Antioquia, responsável pela revitalização da região].
However, this group ended up with someone who, at first, did not seem to be linked to negative forces, which is Alejandro Gaviria [ex-ministro da Saúde]. But I soon noticed that he was starting to bring what we call “machineries”, patronage power structures that help to elect candidates in Colombia and other countries. His presence displeased me, so I left the coalition. The “machinery”, as I define it, is a kind of Trojan Horse: it disguises itself as a political project, but hidden inside it are those who really want to gain benefits from the government.
Mrs. is a supporter of the peace agreement signed with the FARC in 2016. What do I need to do to fully implement it? The agreement establishes a path, but it needs to be traveled — and without political will, that doesn’t happen. To consolidate the treaty, we need to extend JEP’s work [Justiça Transicional, espécie de tribunal especial para crimes cometidos no período do conflito]because the agreement establishes that it would only exist until 2028, and until then it will not be possible to judge all crimes.
Another fundamental point is an agrarian reform that gives land titles to peasants. That was the reason for the conflict in the 1960s and it still is today, because it was written in the agreement, but it was not implemented. Those who work the land in sectors of conflict need to be protected by the State, have their property guaranteed, and cannot be extorted by criminal groups. In addition, it is necessary to protect the lives of those who signed the agreement. Not so much that of former FARC bosses, who have security guards or are out of the country. But ex-combatants who stayed in their communities to reintegrate into society are victims of revenge and forced recruitment. Nobody ever claimed that the peace agreement was an end. It is the beginning of a work, but that work needs to be done.
Colombia’s Constitutional Court has decriminalized abortion. How do you see the decision? I am Catholic and therefore against abortion. But as president I would never let my beliefs override decisions like this. I believe, however, that we have gone from one extreme to the other. Of having a very restrictive law [só no caso de estupros, má formação do feto e risco de morte da mãe] to a very long term norm, 24 weeks. It would be better if we followed what is already happening in other countries, between 12 and 14 weeks.
But I see it as an advance within a series of rights that are yet to be worked out. In Colombia, 40% of homes are run by single mothers. We don’t protect women, we don’t give them the same opportunities. The pandemic has seen the number of domestic abuse and child pregnancy soar. There is a lot to be done, and reproductive rights issues are in that context, but I would like to address it more broadly. Even because the constitutional court has already ruled on the matter.
x-ray | Ingrid Betancourt, 60
Born in Bogotá on December 25, 1961, she has Colombian and French nationality. She was a senator in the 1990s for the Liberal Party, from which she distanced herself after making allegations of internal corruption, and is now a member of Verde Oxígeno. She was a candidate in the 2002 presidential election against Álvaro Uribe, but was kidnapped by the FARC while holding a campaign event in the Caguán area. She was held captive until 2008. After her release, she spent time in France before returning to Colombia.
