Ingrid Betancourt

Ingrid Betancourt was born in Bogotá, Colombia on December 25, 1961. She graduated from the Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris. She returned to Colombia in 1989 and worked at the Ministry of Finance before entering politics. She was elected to the Chamber of Representatives in 1994 and launched a political party, the Green Oxygen Party. She was elected to the office of senator in 1998. She was campaigning for the Colombian presidency in rebel controlled areas when she was taken hostage by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) on February 23, 2002. She was held hostage for six and a half years before being rescued by Colombian security forces on July 2, 2008. She has written two books entitled Until Death Do Us Part: My Struggle to Reclaim Colombia and Even Silence Has an End: My Six Years of Captivity in the Colombian Jungle. She has received numerous awards including the Légion d'Honneur and the 2008 Concord Prince of Asturias Award. (Bowker Author Biography)

— biography from Even Silence Has an End: My Six Years of Captivity in the Colombian Jungle

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