Ingrid Betancourt, between reproaches and reconc …

“The value of this meeting lies in the fact that those of us who acted as warlords and those of us who suffered from it stood up in unison in front of Colombia to tell the country that the war is a failure, ”said former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid. Betancourt after the first meeting with the former FARC militants, now integrated into democratic life, after the final peace agreement signed on November 24, 2016 in Bogotá, ratified a few days later by the two chambers of Congress.

The meeting, organized within the framework of the meetings agreed by the so-called Truth Commission. It lasted three hours, during which Betancourt and former FARC leader Rodrigo Londoño, alias Tymoshenko, reflected on the possibility of the victims and perpetrators participating in an act of reconciliation. “The war only served to keep nothing to change and to continue to postpone the future of our youth,” declared the former Franco-Colombian presidential candidate.

For his part, Londoño admitted that “many kidnapped people have been subjected to treatment unworthy of their human condition, they have suffered physical and moral attacks which have unnecessarily increased their suffering”.

The former FARC chief also acknowledged that “a large number of abduction victims ended up losing their lives in our hands, and worse yet, buried somewhere in the rural geography, which, given the circumstances of armed confrontation, it is difficult today to determine with precision.

Betancourt, kidnapped while campaigning for the presidency of Colombia, in February 2002, in the municipality of San Vicente del Caguán, whose image was tarnished shortly after her release, after asking for two damages, one to the Colombian State, for 8 million dollars, and another to the French, for 450,000 euros, he accused the former guerrilla leaders of “not having a single tear” between them and in particular directed against two ex-combatants.

Abelardo Caicedo was criticized for “wanting to hear you say if you kidnapped someone, say if you gave the order to kill someone”, and Pedro Trujillo, who said he observed with shame the actions of the past, asked him: “Is it a shame because society claims them for what they have done or is it the shame of the soul?”

The former presidential candidate, rescued by the army in 2008 with 14 other captive companions, also addressed Carlos Antonio Lozada, whom she criticized for “wanting to hear him speak with his heart, not with politics “.

On the other hand, Tymoshenko thanked him for the effort to recognize his responsibility, but asked “how will they repair the victims”.

In turn, Londoño expressed his hope that those who were kidnapped “will never be able to forgive the untold damage inflicted” and insisted: “We address our request for forgiveness to Colombian society, to all these men and women affected by a one way or another by the uncertainty and anxiety generated by the heinous behavior that we have been practicing for decades. ”

In his speech, Betancourt affirmed that reconciliation is a word that carries a lot of weight and that the way to it “passes through a search for redemption on the part of the authors”, so that in order to achieve peace a change deep is necessary in “the relationship with the other”.

The former candidate highlighted the work of Francisco de Roux at the head of the Truth Commission and above all stressed that “he has tirelessly tried to mend the shattered fabric of collective feeling and has taken us by the hand to prepare for to hear those who were our tormentors, to this, in doing so, we access a new humanity. “

Alan Jara, former governor of the Meta Department; Luis Eladio Pérez, former Liberal Party senator, and former military officer Jhon Frank Pinchao, who were in captivity with Betancourt.