PeaceReporter - Under illegal confinement

26/10/2005 versione stampabile

Mèlanie Betancourt: "Colombia is like my mother: illegally confined"'

Mèlanie is twenty years old, and for the last four years she has not seen her mother, Ingrid Betancourt, kidnapped by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) on February 23, 2002 while she was in Vicente del Caguan, 740 Km south of Bogotá.

An unwelcome person. Ingrid Betancourt, an environmentalist candidate to the presidential elections, a senator chosen by popular acclaim in 1999, and since then the banner of the fight against corruption and of the hope for change in Colombia. For too long she had been an uncomfortable political figure for all factions of the war, from the paramilitaries to the guerrilla. The FARC were the first ones to act against her, just a few instances before the sicarios engaged by the paramilitaries close to the government, were about to kill her. For the guerrilla Betancourt was a political figure to be used as a human barter: the popular senator in exchange of one of the imprisoned head guerrilla. And since then she is prisoner of the forest, and torn away from her family and from her life. The only thing that is known is that she is well, thanks to two videos, delivered by her kidnappers. That is all.

Ingrid is far apart, but she is not alone. Her family has been fighting since the first day. It fights against the Colombian government, against the paramilitary that interposes itself in the mediation attempts, against the guerrilla, and against the culpable international indifference. And the family does it by going around the world and telling the story of a woman so brave and in love with her beautiful country to challenge the threats and intimidation in order to change things.

Shattered innocence We met Mèlanie in the hall of a hotel in Milan. She has a sweet and delicate expression. A copy of her mother. Her hair is gathered up in a bun and she has a resolute look, a calm voice and clear ideas. She starts talking. “How do I imagine my mother's day? Difficult and hard. She is never alone. Armed men guard her night and day. The prison is never the same. They move continuously from one camp to another. They are afraid of being attacked. They are always running from the military and the paramilitary. So they walk and walk for hours and days at a time. How do I know? I know from the stories of other kidnapped victims that have been released. I know that danger in the jungle is always around her, wherever she is - and I'm not talking only about guns - there are many diseases down there. Many kidnapped have died because of this.

Not a life. “My mother is not living. She is surviving. I know she is strong, but after three years and eight months, I don't know how she will be able to go on . They are robbing her of her time, and she will never have it back - neither will we. My brother Lorenzo was a child when they took her away - he was 13 years old. She left him as a child and will find a man when she will come back”. Mèlanie speaks as a woman - with no self-pity. She speaks with everyone: for her mother, her grandmother and her father. She tells everyone about their pain, their anguish, without thinking about her self, the sixteen year old girl she used to be, the teenager that was forced to grow up much too quickly and to be strong for the well being of everyone. “I know she will come back”, she goes on repeating.

Recollecting. “That awful day we received a phone call from my Aunt. It was Saturday. I answered the phone. She was very upset. She wanted to speak with my father. I immediately thought it was about my Grandfather on my Mother's side, since he was ill. Then, from my Father's few words I understood it was about my Mother: they had kidnapped her. It was February 23, 2002.

In that period Lorenzo and I lived in Santo Domingo with my Father, since my Mother had started her Presidential campaign it was too dangerous to remain in Bogotà. But she used to come and visit us very often, and we spoke to her every day.

The last time I saw her it was in Colombia. We risked coming back for a short period because my Grandfather, her Father, had been hospitalized and we wanted to say hello to him. Poor Grandfather. When he died, my Mother had already been a month in the hands of the FARC. She came to know of her Father's death much later from an old newspaper. In her first video she referred exactly to this. Can you imagine? They took away the possibility for her to say goodbye to her Father for the last time”.

Unambiguous words. “I want the guerrilla to understand that at this rate they won't get to anything. They are making a mess. By kidnapping people they are not obtaining the population's support. When more than forty years ago the FARC started their battle, they had a legitimacy. They were peasants that were left with nothing. They were victims of the manifest social injustice that has been seizing Colombia for too long. But know everything has deteriorated and the victims of this war are exactly the same population that they would like to defend. It's ridiculous - it's horrible. They have to realize this." Mèlanie analysis clearly the historical and social dynamics of the last decades, without hesitation. “In these last years a lot has changed. Everything has become more complicated. Also the rebels have had to enter into business to survive - they have had to find a way to get an income to sustain this long war. This is part of the strategy of belligerent men. And the kidnappings clearly are part of this need to survive. On one hand there are victims that are kidnapped for money and released with a payment of a more or less abundant ransom; on the other hand there are those that are kidnapped for political reasons and that no ransom will bring back. My mother is part of this second type. She is a political prisoner. She is part of that group of people that the Uribe government ignores. What the FARC wants is a humanitarian agreement, but the government doesn't listen to them. Still, 85% of the kidnapped victims in the world are in Colombia; why doesn't anyone intervene?”

Stella Spinelli