She announced it on January 30: she is a candidate for the presidency of the Republic. And since this announcement, the political spectrum has been shaken. The newspaper El Pais America even writes “Betancourt sets fire to the electoral campaign”. Ingrid Betancourt has dual Franco-Colombian nationality. She is now 60 years old. And her detention by the Colombian Marxist guerrillas of the FARC had marked the spirits: she had been held for 6 years from 2002 to 2008 before being released during a spectacular military operation.
In this country of 50 million inhabitants, the great electoral sequence to come will take place in the opposite direction to France: first of the legislative elections on March 13, then the 1st round of the presidential election on May 29 before a second round. , if necessary on June 19. Ingrid Betancourt had first planned to participate in a primary of the center, but she changed her mind: she launched herself directly into the race under the label of an environmentalist party, Vert Oxygen. His first campaign spots, unveiled on Wednesday, are surprising. On a green background, of course, it’s called “Una cerveza con Ingrid”. A beer with Ingrid. Come have a beer with me, we’ll talk about the future of the country. First meeting Thursday, February 3 in the evening in a restaurant in Bogota.
Quiero tomarme una cerveza con ustedes mientras hablamos sober el país, sober el futuro, sober sus sueños, worries y esperanzas. ¡Conozcamonos! Quiero conversar con ustedes. Our vemos mañana in ElBarrio, calle 39#21-11. pic.twitter.com/3Ew1cmuGi7
— Ingrid Betancourt (@IBetancourtCol) February 3, 2022
The ex-hostage is quite a controversial figure in Colombia, many more than in France where it enjoys a very positive image. Many Colombians accuse Ingrid Betancourt of being an heiress, an incarnation of those great families of European origin who monopolized power in the country. And then she was accused of having sought to exploit her detention, to take advantage of it in the media, and also financially since she had for a time sought to obtain compensation from the Colombian State.
It is for this reason that she is far behind in the polls, credited with only 3, 4, 5%. But she has an asset: she will campaign not so much on ecology as on the fight against corruption. This is his battle horse, and one of the big topics of debate in the country: the pandemic has plunged half of Colombia into poverty while the ruling elites gave the impression of losing interest in the situation. The popularity rating of right-wing president Ivan Duque is at its lowest, barely above 20%.
The candidate therefore wants to offer an alternative to the right-left duel. Of course, the right-left opposition remains structuring in Colombia. It is a legacy of the conflict against the FARC which lasted 50 years. And today the left-wing candidate, former mayor of Bogota, Gustavo Petro is in the lead. If he wins, he would also really rock South America after the recent successes of left-wing parties in Chile, Peru and Argentina. But opinion polls show that this duel does not satisfy voters, many of whom define themselves as centrists. It is therefore Ingrid Betancourt’s bet: to smash the entire political spectrum and at the same time become the first woman to become president in Colombia.