OPINION
‘‘I’M A DREAMER’’ - THE COLOMBIAN LADY
by
Dr Andrew Azzopardi
Department of Youth and Community Studies
Faculty of Education, University of Malta
We have all witnessed the emotions as former Senator Ingrid Betancourt, the Colombian
Presidential Candidate kidnapped 6 years and 5 months ago by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Columbia (FARC) while campaigning for the presidency in 2002 hugged, embraced and cuddled
the people she loves, her supporters and collaborators. Betancourt was imprisoned in the jungles
of Colombia – the victual of cocaine and drug consumers. This 47 year-old frail looking Lady
Politician was born in Colombia but lived a substantial part of her life in France.
She recounts her frightful jungle story. The kidnapped had to endure being chained by their necks
to trees for hours if not days, to suffer hunger, to live in appalling conditions and to bear sickness.
The captives slept in the open with rain soaking them and turning their impoverished grounds and
sleeping tents into a vast terrain of sludge. Apart from that the incarcerated had to challenge
deadly and dangerous insects and the constant threat of malaria. At one point Betancourt was so
acutely ill she had to be nourished water with a spoon. From the stories that are starting to
emerge, it seems that the worst castigation of all was having to walk in the jungle barefooted.
Betancourt on one occasion tried to escape together with an American hostage. For about six
days they managed to stay away alternating between swimming in the river to trying to find their
way around acres of jungle hoping to arrive in Brazil sooner rather than later. Then again
Betancourt and her co-escapee had to turn themselves in because they were running short of
provisions and the latter was diabetic. As a corollary she spent something like two or three years
chained to the neck with a male hostage shackled 24 hours a day! CNN.com reports
that…although Betancourt and William Perez did not specifically address the degree of brutality
they endured, she hinted at it in an interview with France 2. "It was not treatment that you can give
to a living being, I won't even speak of a human being," Betancourt said. "I wouldn't have given the
treatment I had to an animal, perhaps not even to a plant”.
Conversely, the stateliness of this Politician turned Icon is astonishing. One cannot overlook the
way Betancourt took on the whole Liberal Party Assembly some 4 years prior to being kidnapped
and colluded head-on with the opinionated class, who in her understanding were orchestrating a
rigged Conference governed by corrupt politics. She claimed that politics was more often than not
an ‘act of power anthology’ rather than the ‘art of self-sacrifice’ in Colombia. With Betancourt’s
release we have come to realise that this extraordinary Politician has a misshapen appreciation of
political affairs based on a natural sense of social justice, an insatiable drive towards change and
transformation and a strong sagacity for citizenship and service. Politics for her is really and truly
about regenerating communities, improving and recuperating the quality of life of all.
As soon as Betancourt ‘touched down’ one could witness her spindly body but at the same time
one couldn’t do away with observing a strong-minded, unbendable and level-headed Lady. No
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wonder she was such a prized catch. No surprise it took such a complex operation to bring her
back to freedom for us all – to watch, to listen and to savour this narrative;
Here, in the forest, in the silence and far away, I ponder this question: how was it possible for 150
foreign journalists to reach San Vicente in total safety while a presidential candidate was
denied that right! What exactly are the priorities of this government? ... I request of the international
community that it helps us save at least the possibility of peace in Colombia. Nobody, nobody in
Colombia, may barricade the road to peace, the way of dialogue, and simply toss the key into the
sea…. I suffer to see that in Colombia there are those who would close our hearts, harden our
spirits, that explain to us that with abductions, the only solution is to wait and do nothing, as
if human life did not count…I do not request a prisoner exchange, neither for me nor for the other
abducted people. This is a decision by the government. The government must remain free, and it
must not be subject to blackmail or pressure that influences its decisions. But what I do not accept
as a Colombian is abandonment by the Colombian State."
The Betancourt ordeal made me quiz: What are the dangers of despotic power and an overgrown
State? Can ‘politics’ and ‘public morality’ congregate? How can we shift from ‘civic life’ to ‘civic
glory’? As Betancourt said ‘we need to cry very loud to the World for all to hear’. She is a dreamer
– but (I hope) she’s not the only one!
Details:
Dr Andrew Azzopardi, Lecturer
Department of Youth and Community Studies - Faculty of Education,
Room 114, FEMA Building, University of Malta – MSD 2080
Telephone: 23402918
Mobile:
79266344
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