During her recent publicity tour for Even Silence Has an End, a riveting memoir of her experience as a political hostage, Ingrid Betancourt has sometimes been hailed as a hero. Dissenting voices, which include her estranged husband and several fellow hostages, have challenged that designation. The truth, I suspect, is a complex one. Sometimes heroism is thrust upon one, bestowing heroism despite oneself. Sometimes the heroism consists in simply surviving the challenge and continuing to live. Both of these may be the case with Ingrid Betancourt.
This one-time candidate for President of Colombia was kidnapped by guerrillas in 2002 and kept imprisoned in the Amazon jungle for six-and-a-half years. In a dramatic rescue which electrified the world in 2008, she and fourteen fellow hostages were liberated by the Colombian military. Betancourt has since mostly lived in France. In an incomprehensible move, this year Betancourt sued the Colombian government for economic and moral damages resulting from her captivity, a suit she then quickly dropped. In Colombia, widespread enmity against her has ensued as a result.
It is not surprising then that the reviews of her book are divided into two opposing camps. And yet, Betancourt’s experience as a captive offers insights into the nature of heroism. Who can imagine what it is like to live chained by the neck to a tree for months on end? Who has the courage to defy her captors by attempting to escape four times while imprisoned in the deepest Amazon jungle? Who can say what it is like to live for years in hot and primitive conditions, cheek to jowl with incompatible fellow prisoners and bullying jailers? To survive that with any shred of dignity is heroic all on its own. And, despite what her detractors say, Betancourt did use her experience in the jungle as an opportunity to hold a mirror to her own darkness.
“I did not want to emerge from the jungle as a shriveled old woman, ravaged by acrimony and hate …. I looked at myself in the mirror of other people and saw there all the defects of humanity—hatred, jealousy, greed, selfishness. But it was in myself that I observed them. … I did not like who I had become. … I decided to monitor myself … [but] ended up doing just the opposite of what my good resolutions dictated. My only solace was that I’d become aware of it."
Whether in freedom she has managed to follow her good resolutions is still an open question. Her actions since her release, both in having sued the government which rescued her and in shunning the husband who spent six-and-a-half years working for her freedom, might suggest otherwise. Her well-written memoir at the very least shows a self awareness of her defects of character. What she does about them in the remainder of her life may well decide whether she deserves to be called a hero.
Of potential interest: other posts in the A Hero’s Journey series.
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5 comments:
An extremely interesting post.I'd imagine that the loss of her political dreams is also a factor in moulding her darkness. I wonder if anyone can ever really be the same after such an experience, an dit muts take a great deal of coming to terms with.
Judy
I have been puzzled by some of her actions. But too survive the ordeal, that was heroism. To further discover oneself by writing about it, that may be a blessing and an epiphany.
your last paragraph stood out for me. and then- who knows the psychological damage done to her by that long imprisonment. she didn't give up escaping, and that kind of constant high alert planning/feeling- which her other 'cellmate' did not share- is exhausting in every way.
Judy, Malcolm, and Maggie, thank you for your insightful remarks about a complex woman. At first, I hesitated to include IB in my pantheon of heroes, but then I included her because she is an illustration of the layered nature of heroism.
I read an interview with her in The Observer the other day. She came across as someone who has not fully resolved the issues surrounding her imprisonment. So, I guess it's a bit careless to launch any kind of attack on someone who went through so much. Some people have said that part of her ordeal was caused by her, which is another angle from which to judge her current stand. I will probably buy her book in the future, although as it's usually the case with people in her situation, unless it happens to you, you don't know the short-, mid- and long-term effects of her predicament.
Good post, very balanced. Many thanks.
Greetings from London.
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