Bogota Journal

CORRUPTION'S HER STORY; COLOMBIA DOESN'T LIKE IT

BOGOTA, Colombia -- Her book, a stinging indictment of drug-tainted
political corruption in Colombia, was a sensation this year in France,
where she became known as Madame Colombia. The magazine Nouvel Observateur
called Ingrid Betancourt the warrior of the Andes while the newspaper
Liberation described her as a heroine at war with cocaine kingpins.

With the book, "The Rage in My Heart," now being released in Colombia,
intensive coverage might be expected here, too. After all, the Colombian
press loves exploring the lives of Colombians who have found fame or
fortune abroad, from the novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez to race-car
drivers to the latest sizzling fashion model.

What better subject than Ms. Betancourt? Youthful and charismatic, she is a
former congresswoman and senator who won widespread support here for
denouncing corrupt colleagues and the graft-ridden administration of a
former president, Ernesto Samper, whose election campaign was accused of
taking money from drug traffickers. That Ms. Betancourt's book is to be
released in the United States by HarperCollins on Jan. 7 might be expected
to generate further interest.

But last week, as Ms. Betancourt embarked on a publicity campaign, the news
media was strangely silent. No reviews in the leading newspaper, El Tiempo.
No television cameras at her door.

For Ms. Betancourt, 39, daughter of a former Unesco ambassador to Paris and
a Colombian congresswoman, the indifference is emblematic of a country
where corruption is the norm -- but few are willing to make denunciations.

"Corruption is not abstract; it has a face, and it has a name and we have
to say it," said Ms. Betancourt, who wears well-tailored business suits and
appears a decade younger than her age. "Corruption must be consciously
confronted, and has to be on the conscience of all Colombians so that we
cannot be manipulated."

To her detractors, such talk is self-serving drivel aimed at garnering
votes and selling books, at both of which she has succeeded quite well.

"I do not recognize her moral authority to judge any Colombian," said
Senator Marta Catalina Daniels. "This is the easy way to become popular,
attacking people and carrying out this moral terrorism."

Indeed, though many Colombian blame institutional corruption for the
country's unending civil unrest, Ms. Betancourt's style of in-your-face
accusations does not sit well here.

"We are a society that likes to ignore," said Santiago Vasquez, a political
scientist. "So many people do not like that style, and so they treat her
like she is crazy."

But her unorthodox methods of calling attention to corruption have also
made her a household name. In her successful run for congress in 1994, she
passed out condoms on street corners -- symbolic protection against rampant
corruption -- and in 1998 she drew a record number of votes to win a senate
seat.

As a congresswoman she went on a hunger strike to call for an independent
inquiry against former President Samper. (Congress cleared him of the
charges anyway.)

Such tactics have not left her without enemies. Her persistence led to
death threats against her and her family, forcing her in 1996 to send her
children to live outside of Colombia with their father.

"The people who are in power do not care for me one bit," said Ms.
Betancourt, who travels with as many as a dozen bodyguards at all times.
"There are a lot of people who have an interest that people not know what
is really happening in Colombia."

Ms. Betancourt said she tried at first to get her book published in
Colombia, but was rejected by publishers.

A French publisher became interested after hearing about Ms. Betancourt's
travails. She was asked to write her story in French for XO Editions, which
she did while living here. A legal challenge by former President Samper
failed to stop publication, but succeeded in generating intense news
coverage in France, where the book was released in March. Ms. Betancourt
was feted by the press and the literary world.

It helped that she had lived in France years ago before returning in 1990,
speaks flawless French, and was educated at the exclusive Liceo Frances in
Bogota and later the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris. Her two
children, Melanie, 16, and Lorenzo, 13, are products of her first marriage,
to a French diplomat.

But the French were entranced by her book -- a biography tracing her
comfortable upbringing and then her transformation into a corruption
fighter who faced numerous death threats. It spent 13 weeks as a best
seller and was No. 1 for four of those weeks, selling 120,000 copies.

HarperCollins is now hoping that the book -- to be published in English
under the title, "Until Death Do Us Part: My Struggle to Reclaim Colombia"
- -- will find similar success in the United States.

In Colombia, however, there was clear discomfort with a Colombian airing
the country's dirty laundry abroad. Semana, Colombia's leading
newsmagazine, portrayed Ms. Betancourt as Joan of Arc, saying that in her
book "practically all" Colombians "are bad, except for her."

But that was eight months ago. One magazine here, Cambio, ran a small item
this week noting that her "proselytizing activities" received more coverage
in the foreign press.

The indifference, though, did not seem to bother dozens of book buyers who
swarmed around Ms. Betancourt last week as she went from one book signing
to another. Many buyers, shaking her hand or kissing her cheek, expressed
disgust with the country's politicians.

"I'm tired of being deceived," said one buyer, J. Orlando Rodriguez, as he
greeted Ms. Betancourt. "I like your ideas. Do not deceive me."

Ms. Betancourt, holding his hands, smiled and said, "I would never deceive
you."