Ingrid Betancourt is a heroine. Like Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese Nobel Peace Prize winner, Ingrid Betancourt's beliefs - in her case in Columbia's right to democracy - have put her into dramatic personal danger.
Ingrid Betancourt, a native Columbian, is determined to take on the drug cartels and corrupt leaders that have so destroyed her country. So this young - now only 40 - and beautiful woman, mother of two young children, gave up her luxurious life as the wife of a French diplomat to stand for election to the Senate.
Elected in 1998 with an unprecedented number of votes, she has determinedly fought for the ideals of freedom and democracy in which she so strongly believes. As a result of her stands, she has also become one of the most threatened women in the world, in a country where at the time of the 2000 elections hundreds of candidates were assassinated. She has received countless death threats and letters at home enclosing photos of mutilated children, threatening to inflict the same harm on her own two children.
This, however, does not deter her in her brave mission. She is standing for office at the next presidential elections in 2002.
Ingrid Betancourt is a beacon of hope for her country and an amazing woman of courage to the rest of the world. Her determined battle against corruption is the antidote that Columbia has needed for so long to conquer the violence that has poisoned their country. If Ingrid Betancourt succeeds in her battle, she will change the course of history. 'Until Death Do Us Part' is her story.
