Word: betancourt
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...seven days since she emerged from six and a half harrowing years as a FARC hostage in the Colombian jungle, Ingrid Betancourt has been canonized by the media. And Saint Ingrid has responded with inspiring grace and cool. She was feted at a glam-glitz reception by a rapturous Nicolas Sarkozy within hours of touching down in Paris on July 4. The fine features of the Paris-raised Colombian now grace countless magazine covers, replacing the gaunt image that had been prevalent until last week, one taken from a proof-of-life video and hung on city halls across France...
Hell it certainly was: Betancourt was chained for 12 hours a day to a tree, subjected to grueling 10-hour marches, ravaged by poisonous plants and insects, and terrorized by ruthless guards. And those are just the details we know about. She admits that worse - perhaps including sexual threats - remain concealed, probably until she writes her memoirs. Now she's planning to visit the Pope, and on Monday will receive the Legion of Honor from Sarkozy at a Bastille Day ceremony. Meanwhile, Chile's President Michelle Bachelet has said she intends to nominate Betancourt for a Nobel Peace Prize. Little...
...Betancourt's biggest problem ahead could be this: Nelson Mandela emerged from 27 years in jail in 1990 with his huge political movement intact and a nation to run. Mandela's leadership was unquestioned. In stark contrast Betancourt has emerged as a lone woman with no political constituency and no clear home, geographically or politically. (She has apparently also left her husband in Bogota, after giving him a perfunctory hug the day she was freed.) That outsider status is familiar ground for Betancourt, who was raised not among the poor masses, as Mandela was, but as an aristocratic expatriate...
...Despite Betancourt's obvious charisma and attractiveness, she had not a fig's chance of winning her 2002 campaign for the Colombian presidency at the time of her kidnapping. Her Green Oxygen Party had only one parliamentarian, who came from the area to which she traveled disastrously the day FARC rebels nabbed her. This past week Betancourt has said she does not know yet when she will return to Colombia, or what exactly her role will be. But she clearly has her eye on returning to Colombian politics, having penned a 190-point program while she was a hostage...
...first comes psychological healing. During an interview with the New York Times on Thursday (the audiotape of which was shared with Newsweek, TIME and National Public Radio), when asked if she might have a breakdown, Betancourt, who is poetically articulate in English, French and Spanish, admitted she senses that moment is coming. "It's like the roaring of the waves," she said. "I know it's getting closer. I know it's time for me to stop because I don't want to be submerged by depression...