Event and Ticketing Details
Dates & Times
Wednesday 25 May
7:30 PM - 8:30 PM
In 2002, when campaigning to become president of Colombia, the former Senator and leader of the Green Oxygen Party was kidnapped by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and held captive for six years in the Colombian jungle. Those six years – the terror and the hopelessness, the disintegration of self – are the subject of her recent memoir Even Silence Has an End. When, in 2008, she was rescued by the Colombian military, international media captured each moment as Ingrid Betancourt rejoined the world.
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 anti-corruption platform. She speaks with Radio National’s Peter Mares about what sustained her, the heroism of those who rescued her and the controversy that has plagued her since.
Ingrid Betancourt is in Australia as a guest of the Wheeler Centre and the Sydney Writers' Festival.
Featuring
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.
Peter Mares
Peter Mares is lead moderator with The Cranlana Programme, an independent, not-for-profit organisation dedicated to developing the ethical decision-making skills of Australia’s leaders. Peter is also contributing editor at Inside Story magazine and adjunct fellow at Swinburne University’s Centre for Urban Transitions. He is a former ABC broadcaster and the author of three books, including No Place Like Home: Repairing Australia’s Housing Crisis (Text 2018).