On July 2, 2008, Ingrid Betancourt was rescued in the Guaviare region of Colombia by Colombian security forces in Operation "Jaque", which included inflitrated military men, along with fourteen other hostages, including three citizens of the United States. Her top campaign staffer was previously released in 2007.
Several Colombian political figures continued to attempt to visit the demilitarized zone (DMZ) even as the talks ended. Most candidates for political office that intended to do so backed off when authorities warned them of the danger. Ingrid Betancourt, as another one of these candidates, insisted to be taken to the former DMZ by a military aircraft. President Pastrana and other officials turned down this petition arguing that neither they, nor the Colombian Army, could guarantee her safety during the turmoil that would follow the retaking of the DMZ. Additionally, Betancourt was running for president in the 2002 elections; aiding her in such a request meant that the government was rendering its resources to Betancourt's private political interests. Agreeing to Betancourt's request would also mean that the government was either backing a candidate for the presidential elections or that it then had to assist every single candidate in their demands of using official and military resources for their private interests.
When denied transport aboard this military helicopter that was heading to the zone, she decided to head into the DMZ via ground transport, together with Clara Rojas, her campaign manager who was later named running-mate for the 2002 election, and a handful of political aides. On February 23, 2002, she was stopped at the last military checkpoint before going into the former DMZ. Military officers insisted that Betancourt and her party not continue in their effort to reach San Vicente del Caguan, the village used for the peace talks. San Vicente's mayor was the only Oxygeno elected official in the entire country by then. Intense fighting was taking place inside the DMZ and the security situation was rapidly deteriorating. Betancourt dismissed their warnings and she continued her journey. According to her kidnapper, the later captured Nolberto Uni Vega, Betancourt ended up at a FARC checkpoint where she was captured. Her kidnap was never planned beforehand, said the rebel. Ingrid still appeared on the ballot for the presidential elections; her husband promised to continue her campaign. In the end, she achieved less than 1% of the votes.
Betancourt was born in Bogotá. Of Italian ancestry, her mother, Yolanda Pulecio, was a former Miss Colombia who later served in Congress representing the poor southern neighborhoods of Bogotá. Her father, Gabriel Betancourt, was minister for the General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla dictatorship (1953-1957), the assistant director of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, Unesco ambassador to the embassy in Paris, and head of the education commission of the Alliance for Progress in Washington, D.C. under John F. Kennedy. The Betancourts divorced in 1975, with Betancourt's father being granted custody of his daughters.
As children, Betancourt and her elder sister, Astrid, were largely brought up in Paris, in an apartment on Avenue Foch which she described in her memoirs as "decorated with great taste: signed eighteenth-century furniture, paintings by old masters—I remember in particular Dürer's St. Jerome, which frightened us at night—Chinese bibelots, carpets, a hanging garden." Her parents, she stated, were popular hosts who threw weekly parties for "two or three hundred people." Among the family's close friends were Gabriel García Marquez and Fernando Botero.
After attending private school in France, a boarding school in England as well as the Liceo Francés in Bogota, she attended the Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris (commonly known as Sciences-Po).
After graduating, she married fellow student Fabrice Delloye in 1983, and they had two children, Mélanie (born 1985) and Lorenzo. Through this marriage she became a French citizen. Her husband served in the French diplomatic corps, and the couple lived in multiple countries, including New Zealand and the Seychelles. During the 1980s, she briefly lived in Quito, Ecuador, where she worked as an aerobics instructor.
In the mid 1990s, Betancourt and Delloye divorced, and she married Colombian advertising executive, Juan Carlos Lecompte.
Her former husband and children moved to New Zealand due to death threats stemming from her political activities.
When denied transport aboard this military helicopter that was heading to the zone, she decided to head into the DMZ via ground transport, together with Clara Rojas, her campaign manager who was later named running-mate for the 2002 election, and a handful of political aides. On February 23, 2002, she was stopped at the last military checkpoint before going into the former DMZ. Military officers insisted that Betancourt and her party not continue in their effort to reach San Vicente del Caguan, the village used for the peace talks. San Vicente's mayor was the only Oxygeno elected official in the entire country by then. Intense fighting was taking place inside the DMZ and the security situation was rapidly deteriorating. Betancourt dismissed their warnings and she continued her journey. According to her kidnapper, the later captured Nolberto Uni Vega, Betancourt ended up at a FARC checkpoint where she was captured. Her kidnap was never planned beforehand, said the rebel. Ingrid still appeared on the ballot for the presidential elections; her husband promised to continue her campaign. In the end, she achieved less than 1% of the votes.
Betancourt was born in Bogotá. Of Italian ancestry, her mother, Yolanda Pulecio, was a former Miss Colombia who later served in Congress representing the poor southern neighborhoods of Bogotá. Her father, Gabriel Betancourt, was minister for the General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla dictatorship (1953-1957), the assistant director of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, Unesco ambassador to the embassy in Paris, and head of the education commission of the Alliance for Progress in Washington, D.C. under John F. Kennedy. The Betancourts divorced in 1975, with Betancourt's father being granted custody of his daughters.
As children, Betancourt and her elder sister, Astrid, were largely brought up in Paris, in an apartment on Avenue Foch which she described in her memoirs as "decorated with great taste: signed eighteenth-century furniture, paintings by old masters—I remember in particular Dürer's St. Jerome, which frightened us at night—Chinese bibelots, carpets, a hanging garden." Her parents, she stated, were popular hosts who threw weekly parties for "two or three hundred people." Among the family's close friends were Gabriel García Marquez and Fernando Botero.
After attending private school in France, a boarding school in England as well as the Liceo Francés in Bogota, she attended the Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris (commonly known as Sciences-Po).
After graduating, she married fellow student Fabrice Delloye in 1983, and they had two children, Mélanie (born 1985) and Lorenzo. Through this marriage she became a French citizen. Her husband served in the French diplomatic corps, and the couple lived in multiple countries, including New Zealand and the Seychelles. During the 1980s, she briefly lived in Quito, Ecuador, where she worked as an aerobics instructor.
In the mid 1990s, Betancourt and Delloye divorced, and she married Colombian advertising executive, Juan Carlos Lecompte.
Her former husband and children moved to New Zealand due to death threats stemming from her political activities.
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