Until Death Do Us Part: My Struggle to Reclaim Colombia

Ingrid Betancourt, a senator and a presidential candidate in Colombia, grew up among diplomats, literati, and artists who congregated at her parents' elegant home in Paris, France. Her father served as Colombia's ambassador to UNESCO and her mother, a political activist, continued her work on behalf of the country's countless children whose lives were being destroyed by extreme poverty and institutional neglect. Intellectually, Ingrid was influenced by Pablo Neruda and other Latin American writers like Gabriel Garcia Marquez, who frequented her parents' social circle. She studied at Ecole de Sciences Politiques de Paris, a prestigious academy in France.

From this charmed life, Ingrid Betancourt -- not yet thirty, happily married to a French diplomat, and a mother of two children -- returned to her native country in the late 1980s. On what was initially just a visit, she found her country under internal siege from the drug cartels and the corrupt government that had allowed them to flourish. After seeing what had become of Colombia's democracy, she didn't feel she could leave.

Until Death Do Us Part is the deeply personal story of a woman who gave up a life of comfort and safety to become a political leader in a country being slowly demolished by terrorism, violence, fear, and a pervasive sense of hopelessness. It is a country where democracy has been sacrificed for the well-being of the few, where international criminals determine policy, and where political assassinations are a way of life. Now forty, Ingrid Betancourt has been elected and reelected as a representative and as a senator in Colombia's national legislature. She has founded a political party that has openly confronted Colombia's leaders and has earned the respect of a nation. And now she has become a target of the establishment and the drug cartels behind it.

Forced to move her children out of Colombia for protection against death threats, Ingrid Betancourt remained and continued to fight the political structure that has crumbled under the destructive power of the paramilitary forces, the financial omnipotence of the drug cartels, and the passivity of governmentfor-sale. Here is a political cocktail that has destroyed countless lives in Colombia and has spread to countries beyond its borders.

A memoir of a life in politics that reads like a fastpaced political thriller, Until Death Do Us Part -- already an international bestseller -- is a hair-raising account of one woman's fight against the establishment. It is a story of a woman whose love for her country and faith in democracy gave her the courage to stand up to the power that has subjugated, intimidated, or corrupted all those who opposed it. A chilling account of the dangerous, byzantine machine that runs Colombia, it is also an inspiring story of privilege, sacrifice, and true patriotism.

What a remarkable woman, and what sacrifices she has made to remain an honest, outspoken legislator! She has risked not just her personal safety, but also missed watching her children grow up; since it is too dangerous for them to remain in Colombia with her, they must live in another country with their father.

The book tells a truly riveting story about Colombian politics from the late 1980s to the present. Its account of governmental corruption at the highest levels does a great service to U.S. readers--many of us are familiar with the Cali and Medellin drug cartel mayhem, and a few of us know about the guerrilla war going on at this moment, but most of us have no idea of the extent of political corruption that has been going on in Colombia. So thank you for this story, Ingrid Betancourt, but thank you especially for your stubborn courage--you are a true role model and what I would call a hero.

Having said that, I have two quibbles with the book regarding style and content. First, it looks as though the book was produced in such a hurry there was not sufficent time for editing in English, resulting in some typos and grammatical errors. Before a second printing takes place, I hope a good editor reviews the manuscript.

I also think a big problem with the book is that the most central issues in Colombia today are barely mentioned. I am referring to the guerrilla-paramilitary-Colombian military war, which is only mentioned hurriedly in the last two chapters, though this war has been going on during all the years described in the book. It is like ignoring the elephant in the living room to wait until the book is nearly over before mentioning this war--something a good editor should have addressed. Further, unless I missed it, and I don't think I did, there was no mention about Plan Colombia (the U.S. involvement in the war) accompanied by the current, poisonous spraying of Colombia's coca and poppy fields--the "chemical warfare on the poor" as a Colombian archbishop has termed it. We have no idea how the author feels about this horror, or the U.S. support of the corrupt Colombian military.

So read this book, but do educate yourself on the missing issues.[...]


The power of ideals vs the gridlock of reality   January 6, 2002
Juan Carlos Uribe (Bogota, Colombia)
8 out of 10 found this review helpful

Ingrid tiene la certeza que la estructura del poder en Colombia puede ser cambiada desde arriba. Su formacion como estudiante de ciencias politicas le lleva a pensar que un lider de alguna manera es solo un canal mediante el cual un sentimiento y forma de ver la realidad que esta disperso, atomizado, pero mayoritario entre las personas, encuentra un eco y se manifiesta a la vida politica.

Ingrid en parte por su formacion pero mayoritariamente por lo que le ha tocado sufrir para poderse expresar, considera que las condiciones ya estan dadas en Colombia para que se derrote un sistema de hacer politica basado en una estructura semimafiosa y en la cual el elegido no posee ningun sentido de responsabilidad ni respeto por sus electores. Este libro describe esa lucha en la que ella se ha embarcado por hacerse oir y para dar a entender que los malos no pueden ni deben ganar siempre.

Comparto las ideas expresadas por mi querida amiga con una reserva, y esa es me siento inseguro que la conciencia colectiva de Colombia se encuentre a la altura de sus ideales, y que quienes hoy dicen apoyarla una vez logren aspirar la droga del poder pierdan de vista los pensamientos que una vez los inspiraron. La historia tambien esta llena de esas anecdotas. Pero para eso es la experiencia y creo que Ingrid esta preparada para tomar ese riesgo.

Un abrazo para mi amiga y para todos los que piensan como ella.


If only politicians in the US were this courageous...   March 27, 2002
6 out of 7 found this review helpful

For anyone who cares about justice and democracy for our brothers and sisters to the south, read this book. For anyone who is cynical about our own democracy, and is disturbed by the beating our civil liberties are taking these days, read this book. For anyone who wants to understand the love of a mother for her children, read this book.

Ingrid Betancourt chose to insert herself into a political climate in Columbia that is rife with corruption, blackmail, intimidation, and sometimes, murder.

On February 23, 2002, Ingrid was kidnapped by the Marxist rebels operating in the jungles of Columbia as she attempted to bring her message of justice and peace to the disenfranchised Columbian people living in the rural and desperately poor areas of the country.

Only the most cynical person would fail to see the sincerity of Betancourt's belief that one day Columbia can be a democracy that its people can be truly proud.

Her story isn't just a good read. Its necessary reading for anyone who doubts the world lacks people of conscience and courage.

Vaya con dios, Ingrid


MISLEADING, SPOILED AND UNREALISTIC   February 5, 2002
5 out of 18 found this review helpful

Where has this writer been living? Where is that country she depicts so badly? This book is just another unfortunate, but very representative dimension of a divided society, where spoiled rich kids produced the official vision of reality, and then cry out having to endure from the distance, views of violent worlds themselves have been creating in their backyards for generations. Well, here you have another sad example of denial and lack of first hand experience of most high class well prepare but not grounded intellectuals eclipsing Colombian reality overseas. Unfortunate because we need critical and direct approaches. This book does not develop seriously any topic, the need for an agrarian reform, the need to stop relations between drug producers, weapon market, and the violence actors (including all) is dismissed bluntly. Betancourt lives in another reality, this book should be classified as fiction, a really bad one.


Shallow in analysis, self centered in scope   February 24, 2002
5 out of 19 found this review helpful

This book leaves much to be desired. First, the author is a marginal candidate with a 0.4% of claimed voters in the polls. Second, the book is more about the author and her high opinion of herself than about the real issues of Colombia. Do we care that she lost her virginity in high school? What does that have to do with "A struggle to reclaim Colombia". Beats me!

What does emerge is a portrait of a politician with little emotional intelligence and remarkably poor judgement.

Too bad that books like these don't come with a money back satisfaction guarantee.