Why Is a Celebrity Ex-Hostage Suing Her Rescuer?

Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt has always been audacious. Running for Congress on an anticorruption platform in 1994, Betancourt passed out condoms as symbolic protection from government depravity. Once elected, she received death threats for denouncing drug traffickers. In 2002, Betancourt took her fledgling presidential campaign to guerrilla territory, where she was promptly kidnapped. She tried to escape three times before she was finally freed by Colombian special forces on July 2, 2008.
But her cheekiest move was revealed this week: Betancourt and her family are taking legal action against the Colombian government for negligence on the day she was kidnapped. "The state gravely failed in its duty in allowing a presidential candidate to travel in this part of the country without proper protection," say the court documents filed by the Betancourts. In a communiqué released Friday, July 9, the Defense Ministry expressed "surprise and sadness" after receiving a petition from the family to settle out of court for about $7.9 million.


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