Ingrid Betancourt - Letters to My Mother: A Message of Love, A Plea for Freedom

LETTERS TO MY MOTHER

Read this letter. Read it carefully. The voice that speaks to you on these pages will keep you awake at night.

The life she endures in the jungle, day after endless day among the disciples of violence and hatredshe sets it down in language both simple and heartrending. She tells of her loneliness, her homesickness, her anguish approaching despair. Imprisoned, tormented, tortured, abandoned by too many for too long, buried in the distant shadows of terrorwe might believe her silenced, or dead.

Her captors have tried to deprive her of her giftsher intelligence, her sensitivity. They have tried to isolate her even more by driving her mad.

But Ingrid Betancourt remains lucid. And courageous, even heroic. And free.

This fighter for mankinds freedom tells us that for her It is better not to want anything so as to be free, at least, of desires. But in fact she does have desiressimple desires, and deeply moving: to hold up her head in defiance of torturers and butchers; to retain, despite everything, faced with the brutality of evil, her dignity and her faith in man.

In the name of her humanity, and of yours, I implore you to listen to this voice.

For you, it is such a small thing. For her, it is a message from the heart, a moving gesture of solidarity.

ELIE WIESEL

I dedicate these lines to those who are my oxygen, my lifeto those who keep my head above water, who do not let me drown into oblivion, emptiness, and despair.... What they have done for us has made all the difference: they have made us feel human.

Ingrid Betancourt

The words that you are about to read come from hell, from a forsaken corner of our planet where laws, virtues, the rights of maneven the simple word humanno longer have any meaning, where women and men, snatched from their families, are now prisoners, shackled, treated like animals year after year. This book is a cry in the wilderness, a message in a bottle cast into the sea by Ingrid Betancourt, who was taken hostage in the Colombian jungle on February 23, 2002. It is even more than that; it is a declaration of love, a strike for freedom, a lesson in humanity.

Have you heard the story? Perhaps youd rather not.... Some 2,200 miles from the United States, in a country so luxuriant and fertile that it might be mistaken for a second Eden, 17,000 fanatical guerrillas, claiming to follow an archaic Marxist ideology, make a living from trafficking drugs and human beings. Calling themselves the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia), this organization has fought the Colombian government for nearly forty years in a civil war that has ripped the country apart, subjecting its citizens to daily violence, kidnappings, and illegal detentions. FARC uses hostages like currency for its sordid financial transactions. It also holds political hostagesmembers of congress, military men, civil servantsas shields against military intervention. Among these victims is Ingrid Betancourt, as well as three American citizens who were taken hostage on February 13, 2003.

In many countries around the world, Ingrid Betancourt has become a symbol of liberty and the fight against barbarity. Born in 1961 to a diplomat father (minister of education in Colombia, and later UNESCO ambassador to Colombia in Paris) and a mother who championed the cause of the street children of Bogot, Ingrid Betancourt divided her time between France, where she studied, the United States, and Colombia. Disgusted with the political situation in Colombia, she became engaged in politics, leading an incessant and courageous fight against corruption and drug traffickers. The young woman immediately created a wave of hope when she was first elected to Colombias Chamber of Representatives, where she tirelessly denounced the links between certain politicians and drug trafficking; four years later she was triumphantly elected senator.

In 2002, while running for president as head of the independent party that she had created, Ingrid Betancourt was seized by FARC on a Colombian road. Not until the summer of 2003 did her family receive a brief video message, explaining that she had been taken hostage. Long months of silence followed.

Over the years the movement for her release has grown, not only in France but also all over Europe. Though there was no definite evidence that she was even still alive, she was named an honorary citizen of many French cities. In Paris, huge portraits of her were hung on the Hotel de Ville and on the gates of the Luxembourg Gardens. Diplomatic action intensified; her cause was mentioned in many international meetings. In 2007, just after his election as president of France, Nicolas Sarkozy declared the release of Ingrid Betancourt an absolute priority of his government. Emissaries were sent from France to a number of countries, notably to Latin America, to urge the Colombian government and FARC to accept a humanitarian accord and exchange hostagesamong them Ingrid Betancourtfor imprisoned guerrillas. Responding to this pressure, Venezuelan president Hugo Chvez offered his services in an attempt at mediation.

On December 1, 2007, during the arrest of some guerrillas in Bogot, the Colombian police confiscated a video that included messages from the three American hostages to their families, as well as a short clip of Ingrid Betancourt, alive, emaciated, and drained, but still defiant toward her tormentors. The video was accompanied by a long letter, dated October 24, 2007, 8:34 A.M., written by Ingrid to her mother and her family, on a morning overcast, like my spirit. In twelve pages filled with a regular, cramped hand, with no space left blank and no words altered, Ingrid, weary of suffering and tempted to yield to despair, tries to put the essential into words.

That deeply moving letter, published here in its entirety, is an impassioned declaration of love to her family, her children, and all those dear to her, and at the same time a magnificent defense of liberty. From the depths of the jungle, she appeals to humanity, sharing her deep feelings for France, which championed her cause, and praising the United States and the great spirit of the Founding Fathers that created that nation. When Lincoln defended the right to life and the freedom of the black slaves of America... Many economic and political interests were considered more important than the life and liberty of a handful of blacks. But Lincoln was victorious, and today the priority of human life over economic and political interests has become part of the culture of that nation.

This is Ingrid Betancourt. With a rare and lucid intelligence, this imprisoned woman at the edge of the abyss speaks of love and liberty. Unquestionably, her letter will stand as one of the great texts of history. It is this universal resonance that Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Elie Wiesel, personally engaged in the fight for Betancourts release, evokes in the foreword to this book. For his generosity we are infinitely thankful.