Former hostages of the Colombian FARC guerrillas have been defending the character of Ingrid Betancourt after being severely criticized by three American hostages in their newly released book.
The three Americans – former U.S. military workers Keith Stansell, Thomas Howes and Marc Gonsalves – have written a book containing claims that she was arrogant, she stole food, and put the authors’ lives in danger by telling the rebel guards that the authors were CIA agents.
But former hostage Orlando Beltran disagreed: “I can say that Ingrid Betancourt is a brave and aggressive woman. On several occasions she insulted the guerrillas for behavior she did not agree with. I have a lot of respect for Ingrid for being brave enough to try to escape from captivity four times. Did these American men ever think about trying to escape from the guerrillas?”
And another freed captive, Sigifredo Lopez, said: “I’m sorry but I will not put down my copy of Borges or Shakespeare in order to read this book by the Americans.”
Betancourt was captured by the Marxist rebel group while campaigning for the Presidency early in 2002.
She was freed along with the three American authors in a daring military rescue last year. (Euronews)
