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BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt, who was held as a hostage for six years by the nation’s largest guerrilla group, stated on Tuesday that she can be working for her nation’s presidency. She enters a crowded area of candidates during which Gustavo Petro a leftist former mayor of Bogota is presently main polls, however the place moderates like Betancourt stand an opportunity to do effectively, if they'll unite their efforts and faucet into voters’ frustration with corruption and rising inequality.
The announcement comes virtually twenty years after Betancourt was kidnapped by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia whereas additionally campaigning for the nation’s high workplace for the Inexperienced Oxygen Occasion, a motion she based whereas she was a congresswoman.
“At this time I'm right here to complete off what I began with lots of you in 2002” Betancourt stated in a convention room the place she introduced her candidacy. “I'm right here to assert the rights of 51 million Colombians who are usually not discovering justice, as a result of we stay in a system designed to reward criminals.”
Betancourt’s run for the presidency begins months after different candidates have already been travelling by means of the nation to marketing campaign for the workplace and a few critics questioned whether or not she may make an impression on the presidential elections that can be held in Might. However others stated her marketing campaign may additionally enhance curiosity in a centrist coalition of political parities that can be working a major in March to pick out their presidential candidate and will pose a critical problem to Petro if it presents a united entrance .
Within the major Betancourt will compete towards half a dozen candidates who've been extra not too long ago concerned in Colombian politics however have struggled in opinion polls.
“It offers the coalition one thing new to supply” stated Yan Basset a political science professor at Bogota’s Rosario College who stated that the opposite candidates within the middle’s major, the place “white higher class males” that haven't generated “enthusiasm” amongst voters.
Betancourt then again has a well-known story that many Colombians who've been victims of violent teams can relate with: She was held for six years in guerrilla camps deep within the Amazon jungle, the place typically insurgent fighters would tie her to a tree with metallic chains to stop her from escaping. Her proof of life movies, during which she requested officers to research the circumstances that led to her personal kidnapping, after which pleaded with the federal government to renew peace talks with the FARC rebels had been aired broadly in Colombia and overseas.
The politician grew to become an emblem of worldwide campaigns looking for peace talks in Colombia and the liberation of FARC hostages. However her time in captivity led to 2008 by means of a army operation, the place Colombian troopers disguised as humanitarian staff snatched Betancourt and a number of other different hostages from the FARC with out firing a single bullet.
Betancourt withdrew from public life after being freed spending a lot of her time with household in France.
However she returned to Colombia’s political scene final yr because the nation ready for the upcoming presidential elections. Whereas asserting her run for the presidency Betancourt stated she would combat to finish impunity for corrupt politicians whereas addressing financial disparities which have lengthy stricken Colombia, the place protests towards inequality shook up native politics final yr.
“My story is the story of all Colombians,” Betancourt, 60, stated. “Whereas me and my colleagues had been chained by the neck, Colombian households had been chained by corruption, violence and injustice.”
“Whereas our captors disadvantaged us of meals, mafiosi and politicians continued to steal and waste our assets with out caring for youngsters who go with out breakfast right here in Colombia.“
Betancourt can be as soon as once more working as a candidate for the Inexperienced Oxygen celebration, which is now a part of a coalition of centrist political actions that can maintain a major in March.
Within the major, Betancourt should compete towards youthful candidates who're much less identified internationally, however have been extra lively in Colombian politics lately. They embrace Sen. Juan Manuel Galan, whose father was murdered within the late eighties whereas working for the presidency and Alejandro Gaviria, a former well being minister who helped to implement a authorities ban on the aerial fumigation of coca crops. Sergio Fajardo, a former mayor of Medellin who positioned third within the 2018 presidential election, can even compete towards Betancourt within the major.
Sergio Guzman, a political danger analyst in Bogota, stated that with simply two months left till the primaries, will probably be tough for Betancourt to make an impression.
“She represents reconciliation” and different points that had been vital throughout earlier elections, like the necessity for Colombia’s authorities to make peace with armed teams, Guzman stated. However these are usually not the primary points that voters are involved with on this election, in keeping with polls.
“The principle feeling now amongst voters is one in all frustration with a system that doesn't present alternatives” Guzman stated. “And there are different candidates who've been doing a great job tapping into that feeling.”
Polls are presently led by Gustavo Petro, who introduced his marketing campaign for the presidency the identical day that he misplaced the 2018 election to President Ivan Duque. Petro has been seen in Colombian media sine then, backing protests towards proposed tax hikes and inequality final yr, and saying he'll cease granting exploration contracts to grease corporations as a part of a plan to lower the nation’s dependency on oil revenues.
The second hottest candidate in polls is Rodolfo Hernandez, an actual property tycoon and former mayor of the town of Bucaramanga, who has promised to comb corrupt bureaucrats out of workplace and in addition stated in a gathering with the U.S. ambassador to Colombia that he want to legalize medicine, as a part of an effort to scale back violence within the nation.
The FARC, which kidnapped Ingrid Betancourt again in 2002 and lengthy financed their operations with drug cash, signed a peace cope with Colombia’s authorities in 2016.
However insurgent teams just like the Nationwide Liberation Military and FARC holdout teams who refused to signal the peace deal proceed to combat over drug trafficking routes, unlawful mines and different property in rural pockets of the nation the place homicides and the pressured displacement of civilians have elevated.
Betancourt stated she would combat criminality and show that Colombia can “change its course.” She added that each week her followers can be invited to “have a beer“ together with her at her marketing campaign headquarters.
“We are going to cut up the price” she stated, after she was requested about who would choose up the tab.