 17 years ago Ingrid Betancourt put aside her quiet life as an
expatriated mother to return to her country and fight. Her country,
Colombia, is on the verge of collapse, drained by years of civil war.
Stuck between the marxist guerillas, the paramilitaries, the drug
cartels and corrupted politicians, few people dare to stand up and
offer another vision to the Colombian people. Ingrid Betancourt does!
She condems corruption, violence, fights for remote economic areas
and for the poor. She first worked for the Finance Minister trying
to change things from the inside. Faced with the lack of results,
she decided to run for office. She was first elected to the House
of Representatives in 1994 then to the Senate in 1998. She then
created the "Oxygen" party and decided to run for President
in the May 2002 elections.
But, then, on Feb 23 2002 en route to San Vincente, Ingrid and Clara
Rojas, her campaign manager, were abducted by FARC (The Revolutionary
Armed Forces of Colombia).
Ingrid and her campaign against corruption are the nightmare of
those who are ruining Colombia on the back of Colombians. She fights
with desperation. Let's face it: her abduction serves the interests
of many people who benefit from her being silenced.
Learn
more
 View
Ingrid's emotional speech
at the Global Greens conference in Canberra in April 2001 (Our thanks
to Hubert Rouaud for this recording).
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