Ingrid Betancourt (born December 25, 1961), Colombian politician, former senator and anti-corruption activist, and former presidential candidate. Betancourt was kidnapped by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) on February 23, 2002 and rescued from captivity six and a half years later, along with 14 other hostages (three Americans and 11 Colombian policemen and soldiers), by Colombian security forces today, July 2, 2008
This are news that i like to read
I have been hearing about this (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/03/world/americas/03colombia.html) all day. Very cool. The fake FARC helicopters and Che T-shirts were a nice touch. :)
Having grown up in a particularly drug controlled part of the third world (Sinaloa, Mexico) I really hate the FARC and any entity like it. I also find it funny that they had to use israeli technology to accomplish this... America has the tech and manpower but for some reason the worlds biggest consumer of Cocaine and Marijuana pretends that countries enveloped in drug wars are not their problem.
Edit: I'm not trying to be political... just grew around gates filled with AK-47 bullet holes and frequent police officer kidnappings. That's why I dont want to edit my post and remove what I said either... I mean in all of Mexico there have been more than 1000 deaths this year (as of may) directly attributed to drug violence and if the rate keeps up you can expect more than 2500 dead before the year is over, a number that should resonate to anyone watching the war in iraq. That's how bad it is... I just really want to hear american news and people talking more about the cost of the drug policies implemented here and peoples downright murderous drug habbits.
I'm so excited about this story!! Betancourt had been a luminous and brilliant presence in Colombian politics, and I was convinced she would not make it out of this ordeal alive. How great to hear news of competence, savvy, and bravery on the part of those people running Colombia, instead of the stuff we normally hear about my mom's beuatiful homeland.
EC
Well if you read about how they pulled it off, it was quite the daring and gutzy thing they did. Bravo, Columbians, THAT's how you deal with terrorists.