Quotes from Ingrid Betancourt

In Colombia, women are a huge factor for reconciliation. I have seen many strong women advocating for negotiations. I remember when the paramilitary were active, there were women close to the paramilitary asking for negotiations.

Our life capital is measured in seconds. Once those seconds are gone, we never get them back!

You are a free woman, and then you become a prisoner, and you receive all kinds of orders. Sit here, stand there. That's it. You just, you don't have the possibility of even moving to take your bag without asking for permission.

Reconciliation is a national decision that has to be debated and a consensus made among Colombians.

Reconciliation is a decision that you take in your heart.

These years after my liberation were years of reconstruction, and I think I made the right decisions... I mean, I lost everything: my life; my father died; I didn't know anything about my children.

In captivity, one loses every way of acting over little details which satisfy the essentials of life. Everything has to be asked for: permission to go to the toilet, permission to ask a guard something, permission to talk to another hostage - to brush your teeth, use toilet paper, everything is a negotiation.

Forgiveness is a very personal and intimate thing. Forgiveness is not something that you can speak for others because it includes not only your desire and will, your reflection and intellect, but also your emotions.

You only can rest when have the truth, even when it's horrible.

I was forbidden to talk to my fellow hostages.

We're humans. Why always turn human attitude into political behaviours? I hate that.

I think that the worst thing is realizing that mankind - that - that human beings can be so horrible to other human beings.

The relationship with time changes when you're captive.

It's not easy to talk about things that are still hurting.

I never say no to an ice cream.

Sometimes you need other people to embody situations so that you can talk about things that for you are important. And I think that being able to hope for the future is what builds in us the strength to just get rid of things that, in the past, can hurt.

After six years without seeing one, I love just seeing a smile - every smile I see gives me hope.

I am not irresponsible.

I had this belief that I couldn't just accept to be treated as an object. It was a problem of dignity.

You need tremendous spirituality to stop yourself falling into the abyss.

Living in a jungle is not something easy; it's not something that you just adapt yourself to. And I think that in my case, I didn't want to adapt.

In the jungle, every day is like the other. So you need to have a special discipline to make things different and to keep in your memory the dates and the days. And I think that's something that's very important when you are held hostage.

I was in chains all the time, 24 hours a day, for three years. I tried to wear those chains with dignity, even if I felt that it was unbearable.

Sometimes you hear in the United States that in Columbia there is a war between rich and poor, between people that are defending the poor and the rich.