A strange romance between books and me. I'm not a big reader but read is something that I liked as a child but not adopted as a habit indispensable. I've had times when I closed one to immediately open another, and long periods in which I served only as a paperweight. I feel that I have not read enough and that frustrates me a little, because with the stroke of maturity you want or do not go giving away the years, I begin to understand the real magnitude of the comfort that I enjoy when I dive into one.
Except
bad exceptions (search of rings, or salad alchemists vampires and werewolves), I like to express a favorable opinion or criticism of a title before he finished. But once turned the back, do not skimp on praise if he managed to dial my face gesture after all this time has become the only indicator of how much I enjoyed with a set of pages.
"There is not complete silence," has done what no other book had gotten into me, be sure that I would after reading. Every time I start one, I have expectations but never assured. Opened, quietly, almost reluctantly, to thereby leave it to the stories that surprised me. With it, the excitement I had since I kept sealed. As if that energy itself invited the fascination since its first line. For the moment, I was wrong.
is naive to think of someone who does not know the story of Ingrid Betancourt, or at least not ever heard his name. French-Colombian politician who in 2002 was kidnapped by a terrorist guerrilla Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) while en route to the town of San Vicente, as part of his presidential campaign. He was 40 years and it was not until the 46, who returned from that jungle that swallowed an afternoon in which she herself figured it was just the first of more than two thousand. Two endless days in 1320.
remember
that ever was debated in the current school year. Like many, trying to retain only what is necessary to approve and the misfortune of a woman with aspirations to power thousands of miles, did not fall into that "necessary." However, over time end amaze. I encountered with news about the abduction so unthinkable and interest arose in me unconsciously. Radio, cable TV, magazines. After over a year and outside the classroom and school, one day I was cleaning the space occupied by my dogs in the garage of the house, when (as always) I was distracted with the clusters of newspapers that we stored there. Started browse one by one from last month to see if there was anything he could have avoided in my checked daily, when I came across a story about the nearly two years of captivity of Ingrid Betancourt. I was cold. The news about it had been chasing me all this time, but dosed were just that: news. Read "two years" in one fell swoop was shocking. I sat on the floor and I searched his name in all the papers was in front of me while my dogs circled around and made pieces that would bypass them.
From that moment I became interested in the civil conflict raging in Colombia for decades. I tried to find consistent answers to why so much hate and stick to inhumane methods to try to "pass" an ideology. Being from a country that has experienced firsthand the unjust barbaric terrorism brings, it was impossible to stop the sensibility that embraced me when I heard the details. For the first time in my life, I began to appreciate what it means to be free and no more fears than natural. I was terrified of having it at that time suffered from others beyond the border.
During the short time I lived in Europe half of the decade, keeping intact my curiosity about the captivity of Ingrid. It was certainly not a major issue in my daily life, but every time it appeared updates on my senses were sharpened by inertia. I was surprised that showed interest in the European media on the subject and the Crusades and demonstrations demanding the release of all kidnapped by the FARC. Ingrid dual nationality had put into the mouth of the world thanks to France, the hostage crisis in Colombia, and few seem to realize the importance that had. Betancourt's release had become a matter of international politics.
In 2007, when news of the closure was, could not help feeling sorry. Had reached the point of feeling sorry and inexplicable pain who did not know but imagine rotting in the jungle in the most precarious conditions. The testimony of John Frank Pinchao accentuated these feelings. Pinchao, a policeman who was in captivity nearly ten years and that the guerrillas escaped after seventeen days wandering through the jungle, was detained in the camp of Ingrid, and provided details about his deteriorating health, and confirmation the rumor that Clara Rojas (Betancourt's campaign manager, who was also abducted) was the mother of a boy who had snatched the FARC. Also told that Ingrid and Clara had tried to escape in many occasions and being recaptured were severely punished by their custodians, which way to prevent such attempts, they decided to keep the neck chained to a tree as their peers. Chained to a tree. I could not think of anything more demeaning to be treated worse than an animal. I thought of the prisoners in the prisons, which are at least free to move within them and which after all are there for committing a crime. Chained and herded the hostages were only the spoils of the guerrillas. The bargaining chips away for years without.
At that time also began to discover the full extent Youtube and had the opportunity to meet Ingrid at last to the political, rebellious attitude, passionate and somewhat arrogant. I was surprised with the video of one of the secratariado meetings between the FARC and members of government and politics in Colombia during the Pastrana administration in early 2002 in a DMZ. Sitting across from one part of the leadership of the guerrillas, Ingrid dared to launch a proposal which she described as a humanitarian gesture on the part of terrorists: "No more kidnappings." Ten days later, was kidnapped and was beginning his.
also discovered a video precious. A few pictures Ingrid and Clara, appeared on the screen while sounding "I can not live without you" by Olga Tanon. I was touched, fed and also guilty because I knew how much I could show solidarity with their situation, just would not move a finger to change it. Just could not do anything, was not in the hands of ordinary citizens, but the heads of government and the bigwigs of a terrorist group. The video was in turn a couple of pictures of her children Melanie and Lorenzo, who were 16 and 13 when she was kidnapped. He had lost his teenage years and they had lost their protection, their love, their advice. I thought about how difficult it was to be loaded with weight the kidnapping of your mother at that age. Could make a normal life? Can you go to a party and have fun as I enjoyed myself and many, without knowing whether his mother was alive or dead? I have even recorded the activities of two different programs in the world, asking them to open the door to negotiation. I was about your age and I was worried or drowned in a glass of water for some totally absurd. Where did them the strength to keep asking for their freedom?
In late November 2007, the image appear outraged half the planet. There was no graphic testimony of Ingrid, since the ultimate test of survival published in 2003, where he seemed hopeful that all would end soon, speaking in a deliberate tone unlike the first video a few months after his abduction, where accompanied by Clara strongly requested the government to do something for his release. Almost six years later, the woman of the recording did not look like the above. This time it did not say anything. Sitting in the middle of a vegetation off, his hands clasped over his legs, very thin, emaciated, dry hair was waist, kept her eyes down in a clear gesture of refusal to be portrayed in such conditions. It seemed incredible. It was a sad caricature of Senator vigorous in videos Stock had been raising their voices in protest against corruption in his country. It was the shadow of the presidential candidate through towns promising a new Colombia. It was depressing picture of a human being who had suddenly aged at least twenty years. Ingrid Betancourt was not that everyone remembered.
However, there was something about that image that I unconsciously proud: dignity. Seeing it again and again checked the obvious fighting because no physical fatigue overshadow an arrogant gesture to pass on the message was still there: that the FARC had slimmed down but his identity was still intact.
Beside the video public was also a handwritten letter sent to his mother. In it, Ingrid admitted that after years of captivity was that the forces began to leave and conveyed the feeling that the idea of \u200b\u200bdeath was no stranger. "I have no desire nothing. I think that's the only thing is, I have no desire for anything because here in this jungle is the only answer to everything is 'no'. It is better, then, not wanting anything to be free to less than wishes. (...) life here is not life, is a dismal waste of time. Live or survive in a hammock stretched between two poles, covered with mosquito netting and with a tent over, which acts as a ceiling, so I can think I have a house . " I read and reread this letter at least three times and shook me as much as the time I discovered that chronic in the garage of my house. Every word touched me. Indirectly was something of me that overcame the distance and was with her in these forests reach. Something of all was with the hostages. " These almost six years of captivity have shown me that I am not as strong or as brave, nor as intelligent, nor as strong as I thought. I have given many battles, I tried to escape on several occasions, I've tried to maintain hope, as he keeps his head above water. But Mommy, I give up. "
These tests emphasized the global clamor for the release of the hostages. The increased international pressure. The whole of Colombia and other nations marched to show their repudiation of actions of the FARC and the huge photo of Ingrid, who recalled in the facade of Paris City Hall had the days in captivity, was changed to one that reflected its current state. The world had exhausted patience.
In January 2008, Clara Rojas was freed and was reunited with Emmanuel, the son who was in the jungle. His release and that of some other hostages was the result of Hugo Chávez's mediation in the conflict. On July 2, 2008, the Colombian government, which had been rejected by the international community (including the family of Betancourt) for neglecting to Chávez in the process, rescued in a military intelligence operative impeccable, fifteen of the kidnapped by the guerrillas. Ingrid was among them.
I arrived about three o'clock in the afternoon of the university. Reflexively turned on the TV and nobody talked about anything else. Ingrid on a plane headed to the airport in Bogota, where he was waiting for his mother and a swarm of journalists willing to immortalize the moment. Finally going to see live, a woman whom he had accompanied in thought for six years. A woman of which I knew absolutely nothing until I learned that she had been kidnapped. Imagination, I was part of his family.
The Ingrid who came down from that plane, agile and smiling, happily distanced from that which the world had seen months ago. Boasted an incredible insight, which I thought was admirable, as he believed that such an experience, the least I could do in person was mentally unbalanced.
been more than two years since that afternoon, and today the picture has changed. Ingrid Betancourt is no longer the symbol of kidnapping in Colombia or policies that led the voting intentions for the 2010 elections. Today is one of the most hated in his country and is the target of anything nice descriptions of their compatriots for various reasons. A refusal to consider it unfair, but at the same time try to understand.
was criticized that the day after his rescue depart for Paris and only returned to Colombia for rare occasions. The leadership course pursued starting a tour of Latin America to meet with heads of state of the region and the awards he received and the proposal to apply for the Nobel Peace Prize, were also targeted by critics. The divorce that brought her husband Juan Carlos Lecompte, the testimonies of some of his fellow captives (including Clara Rojas) in the various books published after his release, he attributed an image of woman concerned, calculating despot was far from the myth that had been built since its retention. A refusal which found its highest point when in mid-2010, filed suit against the Colombian state the millions asking for damages caused kidnapping her and her family.
In my opinion, everything makes sense but also exaggerated. Nobody can force someone to take up residence in the place that the general opinion considers it appropriate, much less whether that someone does not have any public liability in that area. Depends on the individual settle where you feel comfortable and if in the case of Ingrid, this is Paris, New York or the Seychelles, is something that only she is entitled to decide. That makes it no less Colombian than others and the use of rights provides another nationality does not make a monster. And the desire of ownership that many complained of, must be seen as the opportunity it had to continue talking when the FARC hostages were losing their hostage more media. Do not stop talking about them or allowed to forget. And Ingrid, is undeniable, emphasizes it every time you have a microphone in front.
The testimonies of other hostages (as well as Ingrid's own) are findings that each had a particular way. Only those who shared those years of isolation are able to analyze and draw your own assumptions and those who were outside that situation we should not attribute to bitterness free. Even more so, the failure of marriage Lecompte, Betancourt, is something that should interest only the protagonists of that history. While here, yes I would a personal opinion on the said Ingrid perceived indifference by her husband during the hijacking. I remember seeing it on television and other means to keep the fight for freedom like the rest of his family. Releasing photos of your kids on the jungle from a helicopter, so that hopefully she could see how much they had grown, it still seems still a touching gesture. On the other hand, I understand that no news six years apart from each other can cool a relationship. Relationship that will only compete on either return, maintain, terminate or transform.
On the demand side, time was not adequate. But the social spit was not deserved. Colombians seem to forget that she was a victim of terrorism, and all I was doing as such, was exercising the right that had to be compensated. It is said that she went to San Vicente warned of risk he was and that makes it also partially responsible. Still, nothing justifies the freedom to rip off a person, like it or not, governments are responsible for evils such as terrorism that fail to sow insecurity a specific territory.
I think Ingrid Betancourt not forgive a person not being poor and uneducated. We are accustomed to the misery associated with economic deprivation and lack of opportunities, and looks bad to those who have been fortunate to "have it all" in life. She is not guilty of having had the means to train and receive a higher education to many. She is not guilty of having a comfortable life without the hardship suffered daily those who have to perform magic with a few notes to support their families. She does not have the guilt of being an educated person to possess or refined manners. If total, when the hour of misfortune can not play at all, and she touched.
Read "There's silence does not end", I am closing the circle that binds me to this woman. I lived the story from outside and now I can know how she lived inside, the more difficult side. I have not yet reached the middle. I've read 28 chapters of the more than 80 that make up and each took me back to the jungle and meet the objective achievement Ingrid was drawn to write: that those who read it, come into his own skin to make you feel every fact there had .
His pen is exquisite and simple at the time. I decided to write this because the next chapter awaits me, is which narrates the beginning of the hardest years of captivity, to be enclosed with your companions in a kind of concentration camp in the middle of a camp "prison." And although it sounds ridiculous, I thought to remember what bound me to this story, it was necessary to find this episode. How to prepare for what lies ahead.
There are books that I have "changed their life," but I do think, have come at key moments of it. Ingrid account in each of the pages, and in the midst of that infinite loneliness found a way to finally know if it really is. See its flaws and understand their strengths served him little in such circumstances. Le permitió analizarse, controlarse y pulir su interior, que era lo único que podía darse el lujo de cultivar. Quizá no hace falta ser secuestrado por otros para comprenderlo. Quizá y muchos estamos autosecuestrados y es ahora que debemos aprovechar para buscar en nosotros mismos las respuestas que no nos permitimos descubrir de cara a la realidad.
Tras el lanzamiento del libro, Ingrid Betancourt sigue teniendo gente que la odia y la respeta. Miles, que cegados por el resentimiento se han hecho la firme promesa de no leer ni el índice y otros que han dicho lo harán para saciar su curiosidad sin que esto signifique abandonar la animadversión que les produce. Para mí es de lectura obligada (y why still not finished). An unforgettable story that can appreciate what freedom means and understand the need to maintain, no matter what happens, the conviction to be who you are. For me it is the book of this woman of understated elegance, keeping the memory of its most difficult days in his eyes. The only thing your body can reflect the depletion of silence, which, fortunately, came to an end.
* header photo: www.elespectador.com
** Video uploaded to YouTube on June 2, 2008. A month later, Ingrid Betancourt would be rescued.
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