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Latest update: 10/07/2010
- Colombia - FARC - Ingrid Betancourt - justice
Former hostage Betancourt sues state over kidnapping
Ingrid Betancourt, the Colombian politician who spent six years as a hostage of the Marxist guerilla group FARC, is suing the Colombian state for emotional stress and loss of earnings during her captivity, infuriating the government that freed her.
By News Wires (text)
REUTERS - Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt, who spent six years as a rebel hostage before being rescued, has sued the Andean nation over her kidnapping, sparking outrage from the government that freed her.
The suit seeks $6.8 million in damages from the state for emotional stress and loss of earnings while she was being held in secret jungle camps by Marxist guerrillas.
But Colombia's Defense Ministry said on Friday Betancourt had no reason to blame the government for her kidnapping by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) while she campaigned for the presidency in 2002.
State security officials had warned her against entering the battle-stricken area in southern Caqueta province where she was taken because it was filled with rebels at the time.
In July 2008, Betancourt's FARC jailers were duped into handing her and 14 other hostages, including three U.S. anti-drug contractors, over to Colombian soldiers masquerading as members of a humanitarian group that had volunteered to fly them by helicopter to a new location.
"The Defense Ministry is surprised and upset by (Betancourt's suit), all the more due to the effort and zeal with which our public forces planned and executed the rescue," a ministry statement said.
"Men and women of the armed forces risked their lives while seeking the liberty of the hostages in an operation that Ingrid Betancourt herself called 'perfect,'" it said.
The rescue was a humiliating blow to the FARC, which has been put on the defensive by a U.S.-backed military campaign aimed at crushing the cocaine-funded insurgency.
Betancourt, a 48-year-old dual French-Colombian national, was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize after her rescue and was seen briefly as a viable candidate in this year's presidential vote.
But she has lived in Europe since being freed and the suit is not likely to help her popularity in Colombia.
Vice President Francisco Santos, visibly angry when asked about the suit by local television reporters, said it should be fought "until the end without conciliation of any kind."
Last week, Betancourt attended a two-year anniversary celebration of the rescue held at the U.S. Embassy in Bogota.
"That's how far her hypocrisy goes," a listener who identified himself as Omar said on a call-in radio show. "How could she participate in the two-year commemoration when she knew this was coming?"
But some local bloggers said she was right to sue Colombia, as the state is constitutionally bound to provide security. Such comments were met with profanity-filled responses on news blogs harshly critical of Betancourt.
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Comments (9)
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This is sooooo crazy. I can't believe someone who was rescued from injust imprisonment and raping would even think of sueing her rescuers. She needs to be re-evaluated by a shrink.
skull heritage Betancourt
skull heritage Betancourt
I thought this whole thing was about
Ingrid Betancourt claiming to dug up
a skull in the center of town and
claiming heritage from FRANCE SETTLERS.
then she got arrested by the army and
the french president at the time sent
over a jumbo jet to rescue her
it was in 2007, just after that, the
french president Álvaro Uribe gave
himself a Columbia neck tie and
resigned from office.
If my memory serves me right
you know who i am! and what
I've became...
skull heritage Betancourt
All that time as a prisoner
All that time as a prisoner must have fried her brain
Colombian Gov about to crumble.
Bet Colombia settle out of court, very quietly. She knows along with French and EU intelligence agencies why she can/should sue and win.
Betancourt sues state
She was told no to enter into the Caqueta area. She needs to blame the FARC for her stress and loss of earnings and sue them. Seem to me that she lost her memory in the jungle.
The context jsutifies Betancourt's claim.
Colombia's democratic government cannot claim authority over the territory of Colombia and then demand that competing presidential candidates must not campaign in no-go areas which are no-go areas because it is expedient for the government to allow them to be no-go areas, and which some candidates may have undeclared deals with, so as to gain an electoral advantage. Therefore, Ingrid Betancourt does have a valid claim for compensation, as a former, presidential candidate, and not a foreign tourist. To deny Ingrid Betancourt her claim (within the context of a presidential candidate) is akin to denying that a French presidential candidate cannot safely campaign in the no-go (ZUS) areas of France, for fear of attack from Islamic radicals, or that US presidential candidates cannot safely campaign in southern Arizona, for fear of attack from Mexican drug cartels. Governments who claim their authority via democracy, must take democracy seriously, or look for another line of employment.
Please choose a language
I understand Spanish and English, but not when they are played contemporaneously at the same volume. Please choose one!
Duh!
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