Six years in captivity changed Ingrid Betancourt in ways she would never have imagined, said Emma Brockes in the London Guardian. The former Colombian senator was campaigning for president in 2002 when she was kidnapped by guerrillas and taken to a jungle camp, where she was often chained by the neck. “They were wolves after me, in the most cruel way,” she says. But she and fellow prisoners also went through intense struggles with one another. “It was a battle,” she says, “with the inner us. Because we lost the compass of what was good and what was right.”
In a new memoir Betancourt acknowledges that some fellow captives resented her rebelliousness because it caused them more suffering, said Jocelyn Noveck in the Associated Press. When the guards held roll call, she refused to answer to a number instead of her name, and she attempted escape six times before the group was rescued. Some rifts among the captives still haven’t been mended, she admits in Even Silence Has an End. “We were able to forgive those guys who could kill us,” she says, “but we could not forgive the person who was suffering with us.” Betancourt blames the bad feelings on the powerlessness they all felt, and she trusts in time’s healing power. Meanwhile, she’s keeping a promise she’d made to herself to take more time for small pleasures if she ever regained freedom. “I never say no to ice cream,” she says.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
'Republicans want to silence Israel's opponents'Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Poland, Germany nab alleged anti-Ukraine spiesSpeed Read A man was arrested over a supposed Russian plot to kill Ukrainian President Zelenskyy
-
Today's political cartoons - April 19, 2024Cartoons Friday's cartoons - priority delivery, USPS on fire, and more
-
Also of interest...in picture books for grown-upsfeature How About Never—Is Never Good for You?; The Undertaking of Lily Chen; Meanwhile, in San Francisco; The Portlandia Activity Book
-
Author of the week: Karen Russell
feature Karen Russell could use a rest.
-
The Double Life of Paul de Man by Evelyn Barish
feature Evelyn Barish “has an amazing tale to tell” about the Belgian-born intellectual who enthralled a generation of students and academic colleagues.
-
Book of the week: Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt by Michael Lewis
feature Michael Lewis's description of how high-frequency traders use lightning-fast computers to their advantage is “guaranteed to make blood boil.”
-
Also of interest...in creative rebellion
feature A Man Called Destruction; Rebel Music; American Fun; The Scarlet Sisters
-
Author of the week: Susanna Kaysen
feature For a famous memoirist, Susanna Kaysen is highly ambivalent about sharing details about her life.
-
You Must Remember This: Life and Style in Hollywood’s Golden Age by Robert Wagner
feature Robert Wagner “seems to have known anybody who was anybody in Hollywood.”
-
Book of the week: Astoria: John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson’s Lost Pacific Empire by Peter Stark
feature The tale of Astoria’s rise and fall turns out to be “as exciting as anything in American history.”