I suppose that this piece of news should be put in the "Ripley's believe it or not" section. Former FARC kidnap victim Ingrid Betancourt has suddenly decided to sue the Colombian State for the a few million dollars because according to the plaintiff, the Colombian State is responsible for the FARC taking her as hostage.
According to Semana, the Betancourt family suffered from hardship (Imagine that!) and thus they feel in their right to ask for 6.5 Million dollars through a "conciliation" reunion to avoid a trial. Yeah, right.....
The basis for the Betancourt family (apparently lead in this case by the mother who is a declared enemy of Uribe) is that some military officers told the then presidential candidate to go to that San Vicente de Caguan meeting, leading her to the fateful FARC encounter.
Unfortunately for the Betancourt mafia (can we call it otherwise after such a frivolous law suit?) there is ample evidence that higher folks in the administration had advised against campaigning n such areas, and that Betancourt was the only presidential candidate that went there anyway. So, are we supposed to believe that some local army staff had a better general knowledge of the situation than the people in Bogota, who were proven right at any rate? But if memory serves me well I remember some post liberation interview where Ingrid was asked point blank about that trip. In that interview Ingrid admits that she had a lots of doubt but that she decided that it was worth taking the risk. The ministry of defense just needs to dig out that interview or some related material and voila! end of lawsuit!
But let's not go into such asinine detail nitpicking. The fact of the matter is that whatever fault the Colombian State might have made at the time when Ingrid became the crown jewel of the FARC, the Army more than made up for it when it planned and carried the daring "Jaque" operation. For which, by the way, Ms. Betancourt is on record for thanking profusely.
Now, let's not forget one thing: Ingrid Betancourt had presidential ambitions and presented herself as a potential Statesman. If indeed she is presidential timber she should never be associated with such a frivolous law suit. Period. If she does not distance herself from that, pronto, she can forget about any political future in Colombia. Then again this does not seem to be the objective for her as the gilded Paris salons seem to be of her predilection these days, and of course, you need money to hang around there and be the talk of the evening.
Sometimes truth becomes stranger than fiction and when I wrote my "South Colombia" Broadway parody I must have intuited that Ingrid was just that, a musical comedy character. Let's also remember some unpleasant gossip coming about her years in the jungle.
Come on Ingrid! You have to be able to do better than that!