Hail, Colombia!

FANFAIR

INGRID BETANCOURT GOES POLITICAL

If there's a glaring disparity between current men’s literature, with its tales of derring-do, and chick lit. with its tendency toward blushless self-examination, Ingrid Betancourt's memoir. Until Death Do Us Part (Ecco Press), should go some way toward redressing the balance. The daughter of an aristocratic Colombian family, a teenage rebel in Paris, a diplomat’s wife, a single parent, and a narco-corruption fighter, Betancourt is now running for the presidency of her tortured country as the Oxygen Party candidate. A tireless opponent of Colombia’s endemic corruption—she was instrumental in building a case against disgraced president Ernesto Samper Betancourt has established herself as a perpetual thom in the side of the nation's ruling class. She has endured intimidation and death threats, has been forced to flee the country with her children more than once, and now lives with a detail of 10 bodyguards for protection. “My book is an adventure story,” Betancourt says. “But more than that it's an ideological way of explaining what my country’s reality is. We're sending an SOS. All our dreams are tom away by people in power who mock the institutions of democracy.” The author remains unbowed. “I’ve paid a high price. I’ve been ostracized, criticized, and persecuted for what I was saying. I can't say I’ve enjoyed it, but I feel fulfilled. It has given my life meaning.” Vive la resistance!

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