VivirLatino

From the AP we get an update on Ingrid Betancourt, the former Colombian politician, FARC captive and current anti-kidnapping advocate. It’s news that really makes me very sad:

Ingrid Betancourt told The Associated Press that she is constantly revisiting in her mind her fateful February 2002 decision to rush recklessly into rebel-controlled territory unprotected — a move that led to her abduction and six years of captivity in Colombia’s jungle.

Now, she doesn’t appear in public without a detailed security plan. Death threats — which she wouldn’t describe — and safety concerns prevented her from joining in marches held against kidnapping Friday across Colombia.

As a woman, seeing another woman in such pain and fear is really a horrible thing to witness–even worse is seeing how the violence and trauma she’s been subjected to seem to have ‘taught her a lesson’ (aka knocked her down a peg or two, shown her who’s boss, etc). She understands now, what happens to uppity women who have the audacity to think that they have unrestricted free movement. They are raped, almost starved to death and denied access to their family for years.

Don’t get me wrong–I am not saying that Betancourt should ignore her security detail and go running around the country again. I myself would do the same thing she is now doing, and never would’ve gone into the places she insisted on going into. But I would’ve made my choices based on the same fear that’s she’s now dealing with, not because I was ‘smart.’

And it makes me sad to see how women who don’t carry a permanent fear of physical retribution in their souls are punished until they do.