On Feb. 23rd 2008 : Ingrid is hostage of the Farc since 6 years today...




[ I N G R I D ]




=== November 2007 ===



Her last photo, in november 2007...


I've supported this cause since a certain time now, i've not spread this before here on dA... Not so much,but things have changed, a trace of life of her.

In november, Ms Betancourt was shown looking thin and haggard in a video seized by Colombian authorities.

After seeing it, Mr Sarkozy vowed to redouble his efforts to free her after a regional mediation effort failed.

Ms Betancourt - who has French nationality through a former marriage - was kidnapped in 2002 while campaigning for the Colombian presidency.

She was one of 45 high-profile hostages whose freedom Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez tried to secure in exchange for about 500 imprisoned guerrillas from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc).

The exchange bid was strongly supported by relatives of rebel hostages, but collapsed after the Colombian president accused Mr Chavez of breaking an agreement.

'Danger of death'

The collapse of the mediation attempt was lamented at the time by Mr Sarkozy, and early on Thursday he made a direct appeal to Farc chief Manuel Marulanda to free Ms Betancourt.

"I do not share your ideas and I condemn your methods," Mr Sarkozy said in the message broadcast on French television, reported AP news agency.

Ms Betancourt's case has become a cause celebre in France

Rebel hostage tapes aired
Betancourt letter released

"I ask you solemnly to release Ingrid Betancourt and not carry on your conscience the risk that her departure would bring," he said.

"You must save a woman in danger of death. You can show the world that the Farc understands humanitarian imperatives. Monsieur Marulanda, you carry a great responsibility."

Of Ms Betancourt, he said: "The flame is going out from this woman whose energy, audacity, courage, forced admiration from all who knew her."

In the video and photos released last week, Ms Betancourt was shown in a jungle setting, looking gaunt and subdued, along with 15 other hostages.

The following day, a letter was released from Ms Betancourt to her mother, in which she said her strength had diminished, her appetite had gone, and her hair was falling out.

"Here, we are living like the dead," she wrote.

Source : BBC.





[ Clara Rojas, Emmanuel & Consuelo Gonzalez are free! ]

=== Jan. 10th 2008 ==

Colombia's Farc rebels have released Clara Rojas and Consuelo Gonzalez, two high-profile hostages.

An initial effort to free them ended after it emerged that Ms Rojas' three-year-old son Emmanuel - thought to be part of the release deal - was in fact in an orphanage in Bogota.

View the videos of the release : [link]





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CLARA ROJAS, 44, has been a hostage for nearly six years. An aide to former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, Rojas is a lawyer who specialized in taxes and taught at Colombian universities.

"Clara was never a politician," recalled her mother, Clara. But she struck up a friendship with the aspiring young politician Betancourt.

"She got in to politics to help Ingrid," her mother said. "She was so caring, she wanted to see if she could resolve the problems of this country, but it's not that easy."


Rojas traveled to the south of Colombia in 2002 as part of Betancourt's presidential campaign. Their car was stopped by rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, on Feb. 23, 2002, and they were kidnapped.

In a symbolic gesture, Betancourt's party nominated Rojas after her abduction to be its vice presidential candidate for the May 2002 elections.

She was last seen publicly in a video released in 2003.

In 2006, a Colombian journalist revealed in a book that Rojas had given birth to a boy, the product of a relationship with an unnamed guerrilla.

___

EMMANUEL: Almost nothing is known about Rojas' son, who is thought to be 3 years old and the son of an unidentified rebel.

The boy's existence was revealed last year after a Colombian journalist was told about him while visiting a FARC-controlled area. This and other reports of Emmanuel's extraordinary upbringing have provoked a wave of soul-searching in Colombia.

"We can't keep living the way we are in this country, where a child is abused like this since birth, a child who has no type of rights," said Ivan Rojas, the boy's uncle.

Colombia was shocked by the news of a baby born into captivity, who quickly became the symbol of all this South American country's captives.

The boy has been kept apart from his mother by the rebels, according to escaped hostage Jhon Frank Pinchao, a former police officer.

"They don't leave the baby with her," Pinchao said earlier this year as he revealed the boy's name to the public. "They let her see him and all, but it's the guerrillas who care for him."

Emmanuel is thought to be nearing his fourth birthday, though his birth date is not known.

___

CONSUELO GONZALEZ, a 57-year-old former Colombian congresswoman, has been held by the FARC for more than six years. She was snatched on Sept. 10, 2001, in the countryside near the southern city of Neiva. Her driver was freed the next day.

Gonzalez got her political start in the southwestern province of Huila, a rebel stronghold. She was a provincial deputy, then elected to congress in 1998 for the Liberal party.

"She was totally dedicated to the people. As a politician, she always sought the best for the community," said her daughter Patricia Perdomo, who recalled that her mother used to call her at least twice a day.

Gonzalez's husband died Jan. 4, 2003, and she learned of his death while listening to a radio program devoted to the hostages. She revealed this in a video filmed by a Colombian journalist in August 2003 — the last time her family received proof she was alive.

Gonzalez has a 2-year-old granddaughter, Maria Juliana, whom she has never met.

[from the Herald Tribune]


[more hope...]





[ Links & Support ]



The WebSites :
- Agir Pour Ingrid.
- Betancourt.info in Français, English, Espanol... click the flags on the bottom of the site!

- Sign the Petition here : For Ingrid.

- Read the book as a letter, written by Ingrid's Children : Lettres à maman par-delà l’enfer, un livre par Ingrid, Mélanie et Lorenzo Betancourt, translated in several languages.

- View here the video sent by the FARCs that proves that Ingrid is alive : [link]

- French tv Spot for the Freedom of Ingrid : [link]

- Extracts of the letter from Ingrid to her children from the jungle : [link]

- List of ALL hostages : [link]

- Last News (in french) : [link]

Colombia's civil conflict (BBC Article) : [link]

Quick guide: Colombian conflict (BBC Article) : [link]


FREE THEM..........


Kare.