Bogota, Colombia – The ex- husband of kidnapped former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt demanded Thursday that Colombia’s main rebel group provide proof that she and about 60 other hostages are alive.
Fabrice Delloye, a French diplomat who was married to the politician for a decade, also questioned whether a policeman who escaped more than eight years of captivity by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, was ever held with Betancourt.
The dual French-Colombian citizen was campaigning in Colombia’s southern rebel stronghold in 2002 when she was kidnapped along with campaign manager Clara Rojas. The last proof of life their families received was a video from the FARC more than four years ago.
“We have to have faith, but how can we continue doing so if we don’t have a proof of life?” Delloye said in a phone interview with Caracol radio.
The most recent news of the FARC hostages – including three American military contractors kidnapped when their small plane crashed in 2003 – emerged last month when policeman Jhon Frank Pinchao said he escaped from a jungle encampment in southeastern Colombia.
Delloye questioned Pinchao’s account that he had been held for more than three years with Betancourt.
