A question about Ingrid Betancourt...?

Question

Now i understand her whole kidnapping deal by the FARC wasn't right and i actually kind of like her by reading about her candidacy, but she talks of how horrible and tragic it was and from things i've read that came from her own mouth said that she didnt miss meals and wasnt beaten or tortured. And actually when she got out the doctor's said that she and her other ex-captives were in "excellent physical condition", i mean with the exception of maybe a couple of good foot blisters it didnt sound like her life in captivity was all so dire as the media has been playing it up to be. I mean she even said that she got bored while she was there. I can understand that, but if your life is so boring then it really dosent sound so desperate does it? Any thoughts?

Answer 1

Well, think about it..... five years thinking you might be killed at any time, away from absolutely everything that your normal life is, physically and mentally.  And for a woman, there is always the spectre of being raped-- that you might be, even if it never happens.  My friends say she was, but I haven't seen that myself in any report.

Answer 2

Well, she's on "Larry King" tonight, so I can get back to you but a couple of things come to mind..

Don't forget - After FIVE years, I'm sure the Initial 2-3 were the worst.. after that you begin to be de-sensitized, I'm sure, and 'accept' your fate, and your torture.

She was also in 'shock'.  She was Just rescued, for gosh sakes.

She needs alot of therapy to go back and re-visit what she's been through, to get it out, because it will re-surface..

She was making an Immediate press statement - She wasn't going to go through everything in One Interview.

Edit:  I just heard her say: "It was h**l there".  Her voice is cracking up.  Nothing she's remembering is good. (I'm watching the Interview now) - I'll be back.

Edit: Alright, that sure was a Different Ingrid Betancourt, now wasn't it.. I felt so bad watching her, you could tell Larry did also.

Answer 3

One needs to understand that a person going through trauma as severe and of long-duration as Ingrid Betancourt cannot "let it all out" at first.  That's because one's psychological make-up does not allow for things to come to the surface except slowly and gradually.  There are things she doesn't remember and others she wishes she didn't remember.  What she doesn't say, what she's determined not to answer, what she leaves unsaid... all those are probably even more important than what she does say.  And yet we'll never fully know the haunting memories of this courageous woman's ordeals.  In part, many memories stay hidden long-term and, in part, she is fully within her rights to keep whichever memories she chooses completely private.  Not a single individual among us can rightfully judge her for what's on the surface, what isn't, what she says, what she withholds, or what we imagine.