Judge freezes assets of former Presidential candidate, in divorce proceedings. The marriage never recovered from her six years in captivity.
Ingrid Betancourt (Fabiogis50)
EYES INSIDE - LATIN AMERICA
When Íngrid Betancourt was brought to Bogota, Colombia in July 2008 following a daring rescue operation, she was greeted at an air base by her family, including her husband Juan Carlos Lecompte. The photographs of the homecoming -- after more than six years of captivity by guerrillas -- show Betancourt offering a decidely cool gesture of affection toward her husband. Months later, she announced her plans to divorce from Lecompte on the grounds of “breach of marital duties.”
It was a move that came as a surprise for many. Lecompte had been one of her ardent supporters throughout her captivity, having pressed the governments of Colombia and France to negotiate her release with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Betancourt is also a citizen of France, where she had earlier been married to a Frenchmen with whom she had two children.
This week, a family judge in Bogota ordered a freeze on all of Betancourt’s properties and bank accounts in Colombia, the United States , Panama and France until the divorce is complete. Lecompte’s lawyer Helí Abel Torrado asked the court in September to divide the couple’s assets, including homes and bank accounts they both acquired and opened from the time they were married on October 17, 1997.
Betancourt, a former presidential candidate, charged that she found out by listening to radio broadcasts in the jungle that Lecompte had been seeing a Mexican woman. The husband is also using charges of infidelity in his defense. A book written in 2009 by three American contractors -- Marc Gonsalves, Thomas Howes and Keith Stansell – who were held in the jungle with Betancourt and other hostages paint an unflattering picture of her. In “Out of Captivity,” Gonsalves also admits that he had a romantic relationship with Betancourt.
Last year, Sansell said that the two continue to see each other. The RCN Colombia radio network reports that the judge in the divorce proceedings has also ordered that the testimonies of the three US contractors also be taken.
Betancourt came out with her own book last year “Even Silence has its own End,” in which she claims she was sexually abused and alleged that her former vice presidential running mate, Clara Rojas, who was taken along with her in 2002, demanded to have a baby in captivity. The account has also strained her relationship with Rojas, who did have a baby reportedly fathered by a guerrilla rebel but claims she did it on her own terms.
Betancourt divides her time between New York and Paris . Many Colombians have lost sympathy for her, especially after she announced last year that she was considering a lawsuit against the government in Bogota for $6.8 million for allowing her to travel to the perilous San Vicente del Caguán, Caquetá department, where she and Rojas were captured while on the campaign trail. She immediately took back her threat after a backlash of criticism.
Martin Delfín
Worldcrunch
