Ingrid Betancourt rescue: a sham?

Hi:

Many europen mewspapers are saying that Ingrid Betancourt rescue was a sham.

Timesonline says "Swiss public radio cited an unidentified source 'close to the events, reliable and tested many times in recent years' as saying the operation had in fact been staged to cover up the fact that the US and Colombians had paid $20 million for their freedom".

French media have also raised questions about Ms Betancourt's relatively healthy appearance after her release.

Finnally, after so many years of nightmare, why is she so camera friendly?

DarkA

The fact or the ficcion is that even if the kidnappers treated her and feed her right still she was kept in the jungle by force for
(MORE THAN SIX YEARS!!!) Maybe she was eating "relatively" right but again sleeping with chains tied to a tree.
Lets all stop guessing and questioning,,she is free at last and those who kept her all these years with hundreds more of inocent people are not any political movement they are criminals and bandits!!
Congratulation to the constitutional army of Colombia.

For me is very strange to believe that is sham. but the behaivoir of her is very questioned because she appears in tv in moments that belongs to the private life. When she appears in the video she seems too sick but now se looks like very healthy.

I have followed this new since the very begining and the resason she looked sick and depressed in the video is because she was just convalecent from an illness in that moment. The picture was taken when she had no idea when and how if ever she would be free again...do you think she could be smiling like now when the picture was taken.
I understand that people could have thought she should look more like the photo. Probably she was not starving, bad food makes you fatter than quality food. All of that time she spent on tv when she should have been resting at home, she declared in Paris that she was dizzy because she had slept only a few hours after her release.
In my opinion the guerillas maybe took care of them in the sense of their bare necesities. That still does not make them saints..try to find an Ingrid picture just days before the kidnapping and look at one now, her face shows more than just six more years.

Unbelieveable that there are people who think this rescue is a sham I think they are the same people that think the Nazi attempt at exterminating the Jews didn't happen - there is always a spin on these things so that some newspapers can sell more papers so that otherwise insignificant people can gain attention etc. etc. etc. The fact is that this courageous attempt was successful and did happen and that the FARC are criminals with no purpose other than to gain funds at the expense of the Colombian people through many kidnappings and drug trafficing - it is rather common knowledge in South America that the president of Venezula has strong connections with the FARC and supplies, supplies, guns and funds for their opperation also, that likely Pres. Chavis controls directly or indirectly many of the FARC's activities.

Face it the Colombian Military, Fed Police and President Uribe deserve a lot of credit for their success in handling this Terrorist Group the FARC and with God's held they will eliminate them from an otherwise Beautiful Country whose people are also, for the most part, peace loving amiable people that the world needs to get to know better.

Guest Eric a Canadian in Colombia

Unbelieveable that there are people who think this rescue is a sham I think they are the same people that think the Nazi attempt at exterminating the Jews didn't happen - there is always a spin on these things so that some newspapers can sell more papers so that otherwise insignificant people can gain attention etc. etc. etc. The fact is that this courageous attempt was successful and did happen and that the FARC are criminals with no purpose other than to gain funds at the expense of the Colombian people through many kidnappings and drug trafficing - it is rather common knowledge in South America that the president of Venezula has strong connections with the FARC and supplies, supplies, guns and funds for their opperation also, that likely Pres. Chavis controls directly or indirectly many of the FARC's activities.

Face it the Colombian Military, Fed Police and President Uribe deserve a lot of credit for their success in handling this Terrorist Group the FARC and with God's help they will eliminate them from an otherwise Beautiful Country whose people are also, for the most part, peace loving amiable people that the world needs to get to know better.

Guest Eric a Canadian in Colombia

The truth is going to appear soon... that woman is a fake... men we are going to pay for those six years... I can imagen all the titkes of the books she is going to writte.
I have no doubt everything was arranged,suddenly this woaman appears, looking healthier than most of us, the anorexia gone, and a new catholic faith that could not be more fake.... and noe she is going to teach the world how we should behave and live, because only she knows... besides she is the daughter of the bitchiest woman in Colombia and a beauty queen, what can you expect froma that?

The truth is going to appear soon... that woman is a fake... men we are going to pay for those six years... I can imagen all the titles of the books she is going to writte.
I have no doubt everything was arranged, suddenly this woaman appears, looking healthier than most of us, the anorexia gone, and a new catholic faith that could not be more fake.... and now she is going to teach the world how we should behave and live, because only she knows... besides she is the daughter of the bitchiest woman in Colombia and a beauty queen, what can you expect froma that?

IB herself said in an interview on BBC Mundo web that she didn't discount the possibility of an arrangement between the government and the FARC at a higher level. Sure, it's great that some hostages were freed, but the media circus only accompanies successes. The 11 congress deputies who were killed, probably in a failed rescue attempt, got far less publicity.
Also, how does the state treat the families of those hostages who aren't wealthy and famous? They don't even get the wages of the public servants who got kidnapped while carrying out their duties.

don´t think ingrid betancourt´s rescue is lie, although for being 7 years in hell, she seems very healthy and in good conditions. Don´t believe goverment payed 20 million for her.