How long was ingrid betancourt kidnapped

If you always consider yourself a victim, you will never take responsibility for your life. Twelve years ago, Rojas was campaigning with her close friend Betancourt, who made the foolhardy decision to stump for votes in a rebel stronghold in southern Colombia.

The rebels planned to use the women as bargaining chips and exchange them for imprisoned FARC fighters. Rojas was then She feared she would be held hostage for years and lose the chance to become a mother. So, in a jungle prison camp that held dozens of other hostages, Rojas started a consensual relationship with one of her rebel guards and became pregnant. Though a jungle pregnancy was risky, the hostages lived with risks every day: tropical diseases, snake bites and the possibility of being killed in clashes between the FARC and the Colombian army.

Still, it was an extremely controversial decision. Some of her fellow hostages accused Rojas of sleeping with the enemy. Others saw it as a ploy to secure her freedom. As her due date approached, the rebels refused to evacuate Rojas to a clinic and instead sent for a doctor. For the first time since being rescued 13 years ago from the hands of FARC guerillas who had held her hostage for more than six years in the Colombian jungle, Franco-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt was able to confront her captors on Wednesday.

She and other victims participated in a meeting with ex-combatants organized under Colombia 's peace accord, which ended decades of civil war between the government and armed groups. In an address to the historic gathering arranged under the umbrella of Colombia's Truth Commission, Betancourt said she believed previous expressions of contrition from the ex-rebels had been politically expedient, and not "from the heart.

Betancourt was captured in while campaigning for the presidency of Colombia, and rescued in a military operation six-and-a-half years later, in She has become an international symbol for kidnapping.

During their prolonged and ultimately fruitless struggle for power, FARC guerillas resorted to kidnapping people for ransom or political concessions. Ingrid Betancourt, who was rescued in a cinematic military operation in , met face-to-face for the first time with now-demobilized Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia FARC leaders as part of the ex-guerrillas' participation in a truth commission created under a peace deal.

Former FARC leaders accepted responsibility for tens of thousands of kidnappings earlier this year. Ex-fighters, including top leader Rodrigo Londono, repeated their regret on Wednesday. Betancourt thanked some ex-guerrillas who have tried to understand the suffering of the kidnapped and their families, but said while she and other victims cried at the event, former fighters had dry eyes. Someday we will need to cry together," Betancourt said, urging the group to hand over drug trafficking assets for victim reparation.

The event included testimonies from seven other victims and seven former combatants.