In greed

I remember attending a ceremony in honor of Ingrid Betancourt in Bologna, in December 2008. She received a number of honorary titles from the city, awful music inspired in her drama was performed, and at the end she gave a very touching speech, in which she made a lot of references to the Virgin Mary, and to her responsibility in preventing kidnapping in the world. She also briefly mentioned a foundation/NGO she planned to create. The whole thing sounded so noble when I heard it, that I thought that Ingrid was indeed a different person after spending 6 years of her life in the Colombian jungle, kidnapped by the terrorist group FARC.

I also remember thinking that being kidnapped is such an outrageous thing that one should not judge people that have suffered that experience, essentially because one has no idea of what they have been through. Hence, one should respect their suffering (and that of their families); such suffering includes any incoherent reactions or behaviors once they return back to freedom. In Ingrid's case, the incoherence was  in becoming somewhat religious after a having a fairly promising political carrer, built upon equal amounts of courage, intelligence, stubbornness, and arrogance.

In fact, Ingrid was a controversial character way before her kidnapping. She was able to carry out brilliant debates in congress, but also was capable of doing stupid things just to attract media attention. At the end one would put up with the stupid/arrogant side of her, because she would aim at the right goals, most likely with the wrong manners. In the corrupt political setting of a third world country such as Colombia, however, that seemed as an acceptable compromise.

Ingrid was then a special politician. She was a special hostage, too. Her French citizenship was a factor that changed everything in the political tensions between the Colombian government and the FARC. Her family tried to exploit both options, the Colombian and the French, in order to put pressure on FARC so as to get her back. It didn't work that well, and soon it was pretty obvious that she would be the last one in coming back. The attempt of playing both sides wasn't appreciated by a large part of the Colombian society, who found it despicable to try to give priority to certain hostages, because it was clear that France was only interested in Ingrid. The liberty, equality, and fraternity didn't apply for the others. C'est la vie.

But at the end Ingrid got her happy ending and she got back her freedom thanks to a special operation of the Colombian army. We all were quite happy about that. We were equally surprised last week when we heard that she intended to obtain a "symbolic amount of money" from the Colombian state so as to compensate the period during which she was kidnapped by FARC. The amount of money were mere five million euro. The plan was to try to get an agreement for such a money, and to sue the government if no agreement was reached.

It is very hard for me to take position in this move by Ingrid. It is well known that she ignored a number of warnings regarding going to dangerous places, and so she is responsible for her own kidnapping. Of course, she's not responsible that she had to wait six years before coming back, but she was the  responsible in first place. It is hard to explain the way she's hated right now in Colombia. People find her lack of gratitude simply unacceptable. They have a hard time understanding why she claims 5 million euro, which is by no means symbolic for a country such as Colombia. Not only: by attempting to sue the state without a good reason, she has created an awful precedent for other kidnapped people who, unlike Ingrid, might deserve a compensation, for whatever reason. (In the case of other politicians who were kidnapped more or less in the same period as Ingrid, a compensation makes a lot of sense, I think.)

She finally took her demands back, most likely after seeing the unanimous reaction against her and her pretensions. She should haven't done that, in my view. Suing the state is a right, even if you have crazy reasons to do so. Her pretensions would have been denied, I am sure: all the warnings to her were public and are well documented. It would have been great to see, after several years, a final verdict from a court stating that Ingrid was irresponsible and stupid, and also arrogant enough so as to blame others for her own stupidity (and to try to get some money in the process).

Everything in its right place

Just when you think optimism is a valid option for life, reality puts things in their right place. After all the euphoria and torrents of information that Ingrid Betancourt's release brought, it is convenient to calm down and see what has changed. Yes, you guessed it: nothing has changed, at least for the better.

It turns out that for Colombians, president Uribe is not merely popular: he's closest thing to god around. Although some of his staffers had already disclosed that he has "a superior intelligence" (which, among other supernatural things, allows him to "express himself in abstract terms"), now it seems there's a growing number of people believing the same. Yes, I know every country has the leaders and politicians it deserves ---nothing more, nothing less--- but facing the reality is always painful. This time, the perfect timing (so perfect that seems suspicious) of the blitz that set Ingrid free was very convenient to forget ---the rather human--- recent controversial actions of him, like suggesting that the judges of the Supreme Court are terrorists and have something against them. (Any similarity with Silvio B, another innocent victim, devastated by the systematic attacks of the justice, is a mere coincidence.)

I have no problems with the decision, now almost certain, the Colombian people will make by electing Uribe (or someone similar) for a number of presidential terms to come. Of course I strongly oppose to that ---for a number of reasons, his unbreakable desire of destroying the basic democratic values perhaps being the main one. I am not disappointed in the Colombian people. That's essentially because to be disappointed in something one should have put some faith in that something in the first place. I have never had faith in the political sense of Colombian people.

This is to be contrasted with the hope I had on Ingrid Betancourt. I was somewhat sad and disappointed, but then I remembered she's still a politician. I cared to lose sleeping time to hear her impressions just after she got off from the plane. She said interesting things, but her position was clearly in favor of the government. Not that I expected a speech full of anger towards the Uribe administration, but a bit more of critical attitude would have been refreshing. She and her family are also forgetful, which is understandable, considering the indescribable suffering a long captivity comes with. The day after, she broke my heart even more by saying "Uribe running for another term? Why not? Reelecting him has been a very positive thing for Colombia." This might sound harsh, but perhaps Ingrid as we used to know her did die in the jungle.

Not everything was that bad, though. I didn't know the comedian Ingrid has inside. (I cannot resist women who are both intelligent and funny, so I don't discard voting for her, for the sake of such a rare combination.) She was so excited to be back in the civilization that she said one of the most laughable things I have heard recently. When acknowledging the French involvement in her case, she said the following (more or less): "as Colombians we should be confident in France. Each Colombian can rest assured in France as a second fatherland, that will take care of each one of us. Never give up on France." LOL!

That remark on the appreciation France might have for me as a Colombian citizen (or conversely, the fact I can rely on France, still LOL) made me remember all those foreigner tourists, that once they visit Colombia, complain about the lack of love Colombians feel for it. Bastards. I have to admit some of such tourists are very brave, as after a nice summer in Cartagena (or after being trapped by a Colombian beauty), they decide to leave their lame lives behind and come to live in Colombia. Clearly, your view on Colombia might change if you have an alternative citizenship.

Ingrid is free!

I am happy to report that after several years (!), a group of 15 hostages held captive by FARC has been rescued by the Colombian army a few hours ago. Happily, Ingrid Betancourt is among the rescued persons, which also include three US citizens and 11 members of the Colombian army. Of course, this is great news for all of us. Independently of our political views, one can only be happy to know that Ingrid and the others are back again.

Only a few details are known about the operation that lead to the rescue of the hostages. Here's what is known so far. According to the Minister of Defense (who, once again, stole all the credits from the president), the rescue was the consequence of a carefully planned (impressive, in my opinion) action of intelligence. It turns out that intelligence forces of the army managed to infiltrate people in both the group of guerrilla troops that were holding the hostages and the FARC's secretariat (the small group of commanders that leads that terrorist organization). Colombian intelligence knew that the hostages were divided in different groups, so using the infiltrated agents, they managed to made believe the guerrilla troops that Alfonso Cano (head of the secretariat) had ordered to bring all the hostages to him. The misinformation was successful, and all the small groups of hostages were brought to a determined point in the south of Colombia, where a helicopter was waiting. The FARC members thought that such a helicopter had been sent by Alfonso Cano to take the hostages to his place. Of course, the helicopter was of the army, and as soon as all the hostages were inside, a special forces unit neutralized the guerrilla soldiers in charge.

Too many things come to my mind right now. Let me mention two of them. First, the political consequences. On the one hand, I think that, once again, Alvaro Uribe will try to modify the Constitution, so he can run for a third period. In case this is not possible, the natural successor will be Juan M. Santos, current Minister of Defense and despicable human being. I don't know which one is worst. On the other hand, Ingrid Betancourt will for sure assume a political role, but right now it's difficult to say which position she will take with respect to the current right-wind government. Could be Ingrid the key to stop an eventual Uribe or Santos government, during 2010 elections? Ingrid's political intelligence is so needed in this moment, but I am not sure if she will be psychologically healed to assume such a challenge now.

The second thing I think is that, assuming that all what the Minister said about the intelligence plan is true, FARC are really weakened. I mean, infiltrating such an organization seems really difficult, and if they really managed to do it then they might have the key for the end of FARC as a rebel army with political ambitions. I really hope so.