Ingrid Betancourt

Ingrid Betancourt, a French-Colombian politician and author of the memoir Even Silence Has an End, was held hostage from 2002 to 2008 by FARC rebels.

Ingrid Betancourt was born in Colombia and raised in France. In 1989 she returned to Colombia to pursue a career in politics. She was elected to the legislature on an anticorruption platform and in 2002 launched Oxigeno Verde, the Green Oxygen Party. While campaigning for President, she was kidnapped by FARC rebels and held hostage for 6½ years. She was rescued in 2008 by the Colombian military.