Colombia: Ingrid Betancourt wants to run for president

Europe 1 with AFP 9:22 p.m., January 18, 2022

Twenty years after her kidnapping, the Franco-Colombian Ingrid Betancourt, hostage for six years of the FARC guerrillas, announced on Tuesday her intention to take part in the presidential election scheduled for spring 2022 in Colombia.

"I will work tirelessly from now on, from sunrise to sunset, to be your president," Ingrid Betancourt said during a press conference.

At the head of the small environmentalist party Vert Oxygène, the 59-year-old ex-hostage will participate in a primary organized to decide between the candidates of a centrist coalition, the Coalition of Hope.

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Center candidate if she wins the primary

In the event of victory, Ingrid Betancourt will therefore represent the center in the presidential election of May 29, a current which wants to be an alternative to face-to-face, structuring in Colombia, between the right in power and the left, represented by the former -mayor of Bogota and former guerrilla Gustavo Petro, today the favorite in the polls.

"For decades, we have only had bad options: far right, far left. The time has come to have a center option," said the candidate, who has set herself the fight against terrorism as her goals. insecurity and pollution.

"I believe in a world with a woman's vision," she added.

"Today I am here to finish what I started with many of you in 2002. With the conviction that Colombia is now ready to change course," she said, alluding to his six years of detention in the jungle.

Ingrid Betancourt was kidnapped by the Marxist guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) while campaigning for the presidency.

She was rescued during a military operation and has since lived abroad, regularly staying in Colombia where she often takes part in public debate.