WEBVTT 00:00:06.400 --> 00:00:10.619 Hi, my name is Tania and this is day eight of 00:00:10.619 --> 00:00:15.519 my 100 days of growth for my podcast Bloom Talks. 00:00:15.919 --> 00:00:18.600 I started this challenge to step out of my comfort 00:00:18.600 --> 00:00:21.460 zone, learn how to create content and show up 00:00:21.460 --> 00:00:26.859 even when my anxiety makes it really hard. Powerful 00:00:26.859 --> 00:00:31.190 real life stories. Each episode dives into true 00:00:31.190 --> 00:00:33.810 inspirational journeys of people who endured 00:00:33.810 --> 00:00:37.509 extraordinary circumstances and came out stronger. 00:00:40.609 --> 00:00:44.350 Your country is torn apart by violence. Armed 00:00:44.350 --> 00:00:52.310 groups control entire regions. We believe democracy 00:00:52.310 --> 00:00:55.649 only matters if you're willing to risk something 00:00:55.649 --> 00:00:58.899 for it. Now imagine being stopped on the jungle 00:00:58.899 --> 00:01:03.399 road, armed men step out of the trees, they take 00:01:03.399 --> 00:01:06.620 your freedom, they take your voice and they take 00:01:06.620 --> 00:01:11.319 six years of your life. This is the true story 00:01:11.319 --> 00:01:17.480 of Ingrid Betancourt, a woman kidnapped by FARC, 00:01:17.879 --> 00:01:20.540 held hostage for six years and four months and 00:01:20.540 --> 00:01:24.500 subjected to isolation, humiliation, illness 00:01:24.500 --> 00:01:33.379 and despair. and her mother a diplomat. Ingrid 00:01:33.379 --> 00:01:36.439 spent part of her childhood in France where she 00:01:36.439 --> 00:01:39.500 was educated and later became a dual citizen 00:01:39.500 --> 00:01:43.200 of Colombia and France. She was intelligent, 00:01:43.379 --> 00:01:48.799 outspoken, fiercely idolistic. By the late 1990s, 00:01:48.799 --> 00:01:52.019 Colombia was engulfed in conflict. For decades, 00:01:52.159 --> 00:01:55.420 the country had been battling drug cartels, right 00:01:55.420 --> 00:02:01.620 -wing parliament groups, and leftist organizations, 00:02:02.180 --> 00:02:07.599 mostly notably FARC, a revolutionary armed force, 00:02:07.879 --> 00:02:12.520 forces of Colombia. FARC financed itself through 00:02:12.520 --> 00:02:18.319 drug trafficking, extortion and kidnappings. 00:02:40.639 --> 00:02:45.539 politics for fighting, or sorry, to fight corruption 00:02:45.539 --> 00:02:49.219 and violence. In 2002, she ran for president 00:02:49.219 --> 00:02:53.780 of Columbia on an anti -corruption platform. 00:02:54.759 --> 00:02:57.939 She knew the danger, but she believed leadership 00:02:57.939 --> 00:03:03.740 meant presence. In February 2002, Ingrid made 00:03:03.740 --> 00:03:16.389 a controversial choice. to travel through a area 00:03:16.389 --> 00:03:21.349 that was a former demilitarized zone that had 00:03:21.349 --> 00:03:25.530 recently been taken or retaken by Colombian military 00:03:25.530 --> 00:03:29.789 after years of fart control. Everyone warned 00:03:29.789 --> 00:03:32.889 her that the military, her campaign staff, foreign 00:03:32.889 --> 00:03:35.669 governments, everyone was telling her the road 00:03:35.669 --> 00:03:39.409 was unsafe. The risk was extreme but Ingrid believed 00:03:39.719 --> 00:03:42.539 that abandoning the region symbolized surrender. 00:03:43.060 --> 00:03:48.780 And she went anyway. On February 23rd, 2002, 00:03:49.300 --> 00:03:54.939 Ingrid and her campaign manager were stopped 00:03:54.939 --> 00:03:58.719 by Carl when armed men stopped them. They were 00:03:58.719 --> 00:04:05.620 FARC. Within minutes, Ingrid Betancourt became 00:04:05.620 --> 00:04:12.150 a hostage. Cool men were rifles around you. You 00:04:12.150 --> 00:04:15.689 don't know where you're being taken or if you'll 00:04:15.689 --> 00:04:19.610 live through that day Ingrid and Clara were marched 00:04:19.610 --> 00:04:23.470 into the jungle phones belongings identity gone 00:04:23.470 --> 00:04:26.709 from the very beginning Ingrid understood something 00:04:26.709 --> 00:04:29.990 terrifying This was not a short -term kidnapping. 00:04:29.990 --> 00:04:34.129 This was indefinite captivity The jungle became 00:04:34.129 --> 00:04:43.350 her world dense humid relentless Only makeshift 00:04:43.350 --> 00:04:47.949 camps. Food was scarce and often rotten. Water 00:04:47.949 --> 00:04:53.009 was unsafe. Disease was constant. But the psychological 00:04:53.009 --> 00:04:56.870 cruelty was worse. Now we come to the hardest 00:04:56.870 --> 00:05:00.250 part of the story. The part that is uncomfortable 00:05:00.250 --> 00:05:05.910 but true. Ingrid Bettencourt was chained for 00:05:05.910 --> 00:05:09.290 years. Often shackled by her neck or ankles. 00:05:09.829 --> 00:05:12.750 She was tied to other hostages, prevented from 00:05:12.750 --> 00:05:18.129 privacy, dignity and autonomy. Imagine that for 00:05:18.129 --> 00:05:20.529 a minute. You're just chained while you're sleeping, 00:05:20.750 --> 00:05:23.189 you're chained while you're walking, while you're 00:05:23.189 --> 00:05:27.829 using the bathroom, anything from that day forth. 00:05:33.069 --> 00:05:37.230 Hepatitis, untreated infections and extreme weight 00:05:37.230 --> 00:05:41.850 loss. Female hostages had no menstrual products, 00:05:42.050 --> 00:05:45.389 no privacy, no medical care. Ingrid described 00:05:45.389 --> 00:05:49.029 guards mocking hostages, humiliating them and 00:05:49.029 --> 00:05:52.529 using psychological manipulation to maintain 00:05:52.529 --> 00:06:03.610 that control. She was told her family had abandoned 00:06:03.610 --> 00:06:06.430 her and she was told that the world had forgotten 00:06:06.430 --> 00:06:11.120 her. At times Ingrid lost hope completely. She 00:06:11.120 --> 00:06:14.680 contemplated suicide and yet something kept her 00:06:14.680 --> 00:06:18.779 alive. Ingrid later said the survival became 00:06:18.779 --> 00:06:22.339 mental before physical. She created structure 00:06:22.339 --> 00:06:25.699 where none existed. She would start to recite 00:06:25.699 --> 00:06:28.639 books from memory. She replayed conversations 00:06:28.639 --> 00:06:33.459 that she had and she imagined meals. She created 00:06:33.459 --> 00:06:37.600 this imaginary schedule. At times she clung to 00:06:37.600 --> 00:06:43.600 faith and at others sheer stubbornness. Relationships 00:06:43.600 --> 00:06:48.259 among hostages were complicated, fear, desperation, 00:06:48.620 --> 00:06:56.660 conflict and occasionally solidarity. She had 00:06:56.660 --> 00:06:59.839 to learn when to speak, when to remain silent 00:06:59.839 --> 00:07:03.920 and when to endure. This was not heroic survival, 00:07:04.060 --> 00:07:09.360 it was abuse. brutal endurance. Outside the jungle 00:07:09.360 --> 00:07:13.379 Ingrid Bettencourt became one of the most famous 00:07:13.379 --> 00:07:17.259 hostages in the world. Her French citizenship 00:07:17.259 --> 00:07:21.920 drew international attention. Her children campaigned 00:07:21.920 --> 00:07:26.480 relentless for her release. Years past, actually 00:07:26.480 --> 00:07:32.920 six years past, Bach used hostages as bargaining 00:07:32.920 --> 00:07:36.860 chips Hope came and went. Every day could be 00:07:36.860 --> 00:07:41.339 the day she died, or the day she was freed. On 00:07:41.339 --> 00:07:46.019 July 2nd, 2008, something unexpected happened. 00:07:46.680 --> 00:07:49.759 Fart guards told Ingrid and the other hostages 00:07:49.759 --> 00:07:53.160 that they were being moved. They were loaded 00:07:53.160 --> 00:07:57.480 onto a helicopter. But what they didn't know, 00:07:58.620 --> 00:08:01.720 the Colombian military had launched a covert 00:08:01.720 --> 00:08:09.819 rescue mission. were actually soldiers in disguise. 00:08:10.740 --> 00:08:14.180 Once airborne, the soldiers calmly said, you 00:08:14.180 --> 00:08:19.180 are free. Ingrid actually didn't believe it until 00:08:19.180 --> 00:08:26.319 she saw the guards restrained. Until she realized 00:08:26.319 --> 00:08:34.899 after 2 ,321 days It was over. Freedom did not 00:08:34.899 --> 00:08:39.240 erase the trauma. Ingrid emerged deeply scarred 00:08:39.240 --> 00:08:43.960 physically and psychologically. She had to relearn 00:08:43.960 --> 00:08:49.019 trust, autonomy, peace. She later wrote her memoir, 00:08:49.799 --> 00:08:53.419 Even Silence Has an End, detailing the truth 00:08:53.419 --> 00:08:57.240 of her captivity. A voice for hostages, survivors 00:08:57.240 --> 00:09:01.269 of trauma and political prisoners. Her story 00:09:01.269 --> 00:09:04.230 was not one of instant healing, it was one of 00:09:04.230 --> 00:09:08.470 reckoning. So why is Ingrid's story so inspirational? 00:09:09.070 --> 00:09:11.409 Because she survived something designed to erase 00:09:11.409 --> 00:09:14.070 her identity. She was stripped of her freedom, 00:09:14.269 --> 00:09:17.230 her dignity, her voice and control, and yet she 00:09:17.230 --> 00:09:22.990 remained herself. This story reminds us that 00:09:22.990 --> 00:09:26.769 survival can be quiet, that Courage can look 00:09:26.769 --> 00:09:30.429 like endurance and that resilience is often invisible. 00:09:31.690 --> 00:09:34.570 Ingrid did not escape. She did not overpower 00:09:34.570 --> 00:09:38.590 her captors. She outlasted them. And in doing 00:09:38.590 --> 00:09:42.850 so, she reclaimed herself. Imagine losing six 00:09:42.850 --> 00:09:45.970 years of your life and choosing not to let that 00:09:45.970 --> 00:09:49.710 loss define you. Imagine being silenced and then 00:09:49.710 --> 00:09:52.590 speaking again. That is the story of Ingrid. 00:09:52.990 --> 00:09:56.649 Not a miracle, a testament. to endurance identity 00:09:56.649 --> 00:10:01.230 and to the unbreakable will to survive. Thank 00:10:01.230 --> 00:10:03.830 you so much for listening to Bloom Talks. If 00:10:03.830 --> 00:10:06.850 you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe 00:10:06.850 --> 00:10:09.169 and join us next time for another incredible 00:10:09.169 --> 00:10:13.750 journey. Until then, stay safe, keep growing 00:10:13.750 --> 00:10:14.870 and take care.