Search
2 interviews · 10 quotes
In conversation
Ingrid Betancourt's story, her exemplary courage, spirit and resilience, has captured the world's imagination. She is a politician (former Colombian presidential candidate) who is celebrated for her determination to combat the corruption…
Elsewhere in the archive
What 160 conversations with the world's leading thinkers reveal about war, peace, and geopolitics
From the archive
Even in those very difficult moments, I had enough freedom to choose who I wanted to be in the face of that circumstance. For all of us, the challenge is to rise above our experiences and make choices to choose light over darkness.
— Ingrid BetancourtFormer Colombian Presidential Candidate & Hostage Rescue Survivor
I truly believe humans have the capacity to change. That's the definition of freedom… our ability to choose who we want to be.
— Ingrid BetancourtFormer Colombian Presidential Candidate & Hostage Rescue Survivor
Human dignity can seem abstract, but when you are transformed into merchandise, something to be exchanged or bargained with, you need the intellectual, emotional and spiritual tools to cling to your humanity. That's the only way you can retain value in your own eyes.
— Ingrid BetancourtFormer Colombian Presidential Candidate & Hostage Rescue Survivor
The first thing we need is activism. Corruption is a system, and to fight it we must first change the mindset of the population, and that can only happen through activism, through being present in politics, through being elected. You have to be in the media, you have to have a voice, you have to be able to convey your message strongly.
— Ingrid BetancourtFormer Colombian Presidential Candidate & Hostage Rescue Survivor
My mindset changed from thinking that tomorrow I may be freed, to realising that unless I did something myself, nobody would come and rescue me. One of the ways I gathered strength was by constantly plotting my escape.
— Ingrid BetancourtFormer Colombian Presidential Candidate & Hostage Rescue Survivor
I had to remain in war mode. I had to continue confronting my captors, not accept what was happening to me. The relationship I had with my captors was based on suspicion.
— Ingrid BetancourtFormer Colombian Presidential Candidate & Hostage Rescue Survivor
I have always thought that if you are abducted for a week, 2 weeks, even a month- you don't know what abduction is. It's only after a certain time that you understand the weight of abduction.
— Ingrid BetancourtFormer Colombian Presidential Candidate & Hostage Rescue Survivor
My mindset changed from thinking that tomorrow I may be freed, to realising that unless I did something myself, nobody would come and rescue me.
— Ingrid BetancourtFormer Colombian Presidential Candidate & Hostage Rescue Survivor
At some point, corruption destroys the trust in a society so much that it has an impact on unity, and the social fabric of a country or nation. It affects wellbeing. It affects the capacity of a nation to be happy.
— Ingrid BetancourtFormer Colombian Presidential Candidate & Hostage Rescue Survivor
Corruption is a collective mindset, anchored around a cultural mindset that shifts to become tolerant to corruption, and increased levels of corruption. When we talk about corruption it's easy to think of it as governments, but for corruption to work- and to be effective- it has to contaminate all the bodies of society.
— Ingrid BetancourtFormer Colombian Presidential Candidate & Hostage Rescue Survivor
More conversations
