French hero's welcome for Betancourt

[Arthur Gordon Pym]

French hero's welcome for Betancourt

By ANGELA DOLAND, Associated Press Writer

PARIS - Former hostage Ingrid Betancourt arrived in France to a hero's welcome Friday after six years being held by leftist rebels in the Colombian jungle.

Betancourt said she "cried a lot during this time from pain and indignation," Today, she said, "I cry with joy."

"It's a very, very moving moment for me: Breathing the air of France, being with you," Betancourt told supporters and reporters gathered on the windswept tarmac. "France is my home and you are my family."

President Nicolas Sarkozy and first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy greeted the French-Colombian politician with hugs, kisses and broad smiles at the Villacoublay air base southwest of Paris. The welcome was shown live on French television.

Betancourt's children and other family members also descended from the French government plane and joined their mother and the presidential couple on the tarmac.

Sarkozy said Betancourt's rescue sends a message to people in difficult situations that "it's worth it to fight. There is no such thing as inevitability."

"All those who suffer, like you, throughout the world should know that ... there is a light at the end of the tunnel," he said in greeeting her.
"You are free, radiant, with your life ahead of you and surrounded by your family," he said.

Betancourt, her family and supporters then went to a party at the presidential palace. Hundreds of people, some carrying Colombian or French flags and many with cameras, lined up behind police barriers around the Elysee palace in hopes of getting a glimpse of her.

Betancourt was campaigning for Colombia's presidency when she was kidnapped in 2002. She became a cause celebre in France, with her portrait hung on town halls and constant street rallies by supporters.

She was freed Wednesday in a daring Colombian operation involving military spies who tricked FARC rebels into handing over Betancourt and 14 other hostages without firing a shot.

Betancourt spent much of her childhood here and attended university at Paris' Institut d'Etudes Politiques. Her children Melanie, 22, and Lorenzo, 19, grew up in Paris during her captivity.

Betancourt was reunited with her children in Colombia on Thursday. Interviewed by Europe-1 radio before her arrival in France, said she was proud of how her children had forged "extraordinary characters" in her absence.

She recalled humiliating treatment by the FARC, saying she had to wear chains 24 hours a day for three years.

"When you have a chain around your neck, you have to keep your head down and try to accept your fate without succumbing entirely to humiliation, without forgetting who you are," she said.

"I reached a moment where I understood that death was a possibility," she said in another interview with France-2 television. "I had seen my companions die, I knew that death arrives very, very quickly in the jungle."

Betancourt described her illnesses as "a series of problems that piled on top of each other, I couldn't nourish myself, I visibly lost weight, I lost the capacity to move, I was prostrated in my hammock, I had trouble drinking."

She said she reached "a truly critical situation" but was helped by a male nurse who helped get her medicine.

Sarkozy made freeing Betancourt a priority the night he was elected France's president in May 2007. The previous government of Jacques Chirac also worked for her release, and then-Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin is a longtime friend of Betancourt's.

Betancourt's release was a big image boost for Sarkozy, with even his rivals acknowledging that his diplomatic efforts kept up the pressure on Colombia to find ways to get her released.

But Sarkozy had been pushing for negotiations with the FARC, not a military operation. And France had no role in the operation to free her.
Sarkozy's closest aide, Elysee chief of staff Claude Gueant, acknowledged Thursday that France learned of Betancourt's release just 15 minutes before Colombian media broke the news.

From the Vatican, Pope Benedict XVI sent word Friday that he would be happy to meet with Betancourt as soon as his schedule permits. Earlier, he had sent a telegram expressing his delight that she was freed. He had met with Betancourt's mother at the Vatican in February.
Associated Press Writer Jenny Barchfield contributed to this report.

[source]

[Carnyx]

Betancourt, who declared : "I'm Colombian, but I'm French"

[Arthur Gordon Pym]

Originally Posted by Laocoon

Betancourt, who declared : "I'm Colombian, but I'm French"

Isn't Betancourt a famous South American "aristocratic" family? As far as I remember many statesmen from that continent bore that surname.

[Menydh]

Betancourt or Bethancourt is a Norman surname. At least it is the name of Jean de Betancourt, a Norman Conquistador in the Canary Islands under licence of Castille.

The Betancourt, Betancor and other variations of the name is most extended in the Canary Islands. And it is possibly from there that it spread later to South America, not necessarily in old times.

[Carnyx]

Originally Posted by Marulus

Isn't Betancourt a famous South American "aristocratic" family? As far as I remember many statesmen from that continent bore that surname.

No idea. The media simply say she's franco-colombian and an ex Présidentiable.

La famille Betancourt : une famille de l’oligarchie colombienne, qui a plus vécu en France qu’en Colombie. Un carnet d’adresse qui n’a rien à envier au who’s who. Le père qui fait le lien avec la France, Fabrice Delloye, ex-mari et conseiller commercial viré pour son manque de diplomatie. Ne comprend pas que l’on n’ait pas compris qu’il avait tout compris mieux que tout le monde. Trouve très normal de parler géopolitique sud-américaine à l’Elysée chaque semaine et est sûr de le faire mille fois mieux que l’ambassadeur de Colombie. Astrid, la sœur de la captive, qui s’est dégottée un compagnon, diplomate de choix, en la personne de l’ancien ambassadeur de France à Bogota, devenu l’architecte de la stratégie française dans le dossier. Insubmersible Daniel Parfait, qui a vendu sa politique depuis 2002 aux autorités françaises successives, avec les résultats que l’on sait. Mélanie, la fille, qui aurait pu être touchante si elle ne s’était pas trompée de cible et si son juste chagrin se suffisait à lui-même. Mais non, la gamine nous explique la vie politique colombienne et exige de nous que nous comprenions que sa mère, otage parmi des milliers, est le principal déterminant de l’histoire andine. Sa grand-mère, Yolanda Pulecio, ne comprend plus l’époque. Comment peut-on lui faire ça à elle, l’ex-Miss Colombie qui a dûment fréquenté les meilleurs salons de Bogota et de la jet-set latino ? Juan-Carlos, le mari d’Ingrid, qui m’est le plus sympathique parce qu’il comprend que toute l’agitation dans les hôtels particuliers du VIIè arrondissement n’est pas d’un grand secours pour lui rendre sa chérie. Et puis Ingrid elle-même, dont on ne sait rien depuis 2003 et son message vidéo dans lequel elle refusait d’être échangée contre des guérilleros emprisonnés (on l’a oublié, cet épisode, au fait ?).

L\'affaire Bétancourt : le point de vue d\'un spécialiste - . . . . . . . . . . . . un blog conservateur parmi tant d\'autres . . . . . . . . . . .

[Carnyx]

Originally Posted by Menydh

Betancourt or Bethancourt is a Norman surname. At least it is the name of Jean de Betancourt, a Norman Conquistador in the Canary Islands under licence of Castille.

The Betancourt, Betancor and other variations of the name is most extended in the Canary Islands. And it is possibly from there that it spread later to South America, not necessarily in old times.

Bétancourt, Betancourt, Bettancourt, Béthencourt, Béthancourt Patronyme porté dans le Nord-Pas-de-Calais et la région Picardie. Désigne celui qui est originaire d'une localité ainsi nommée. On trouve notamment deux communes appelées Béthancourt dans l'Oise et l'Aisne, et trois Béthencourt (deux dans la Somme et une dans le Nord), sans compter deux Bettancourt dans la Marne et la Haute-Marne. Sens du toponyme : le domaine (court) appartenant à Bethon, Bethan (nom de personne d'origine germanique).

Rather a surname from N France.

LA FRANCE DU NOM DE FAMILLE DES BETANCOURT en France entre 1891 et 1915

[Menydh]

Well, yet Jean de Bethencourt was of Norman origin, apparently.

Jean de Béthencourt (1360-1422) was a nobleman of Norman origin who started the colonizing process of the Canary Islands. He was a paradigm of the pre-capitalist corsaire trader. He traded with cloths and took place in expeditions against Tunis. The descriptions of the time speak of a cruel and arrogant man. Apparently he was affected by the leper.

His name remains in the toponymous of the old capital of the Fuerteventura Island, Betancuria. After the conquest many natives (as well as moriscos) were baptized with the family name of the Norman. Currently we find in the Canary Islands many variants of this name: Bethancur, Bethencur, Betancur, Betencur, Betancour, Betancourt, Betencour, Betencout, Bethancor, Bethencor, Bethencourt, etc. These names are also present in many descendents of the Canarian population who migrated to the New World, such as the presidents of Venezuela and Colombia, Rómulo and Belisario Betancur.

[Arthur Gordon Pym]

Normandy is in Northern France, isn't it?

[Carnyx]

Originally Posted by Marulus

Normandy is in Northern France, isn't it?

Not quite. North West. Northern France as the North of North, not as in North of the Loire river.

Originally Posted by Menydh

Well, yet Jean de Bethencourt was of Norman origin, apparently.

Yes, he was. And? Those Colombian Bétancourts are certainly not the heirs of Jean de Béthencourt.

[Menydh]

Originally Posted by Laocoon

Yes, he was. And? Those Colombian Bétancourts are certainly not the heirs of Jean de Béthencourt.

I didn't say that Ingrid Betancourt was the heir of Jean de Bethencourt. Not even the many Canarians with that family name, or the Colombians and Venezuelans descended from the Canarians.

Just pointing at the coincidence, as I've always believed that Ingrid Betancourt was French by adoption despite the family name.

One thing is for sure. Either we believe that many native Guanches were given the family name of Bethencourt at Baptism, or Jean de Bethencourt was a phenomenal stallion, given the spread of the name in little over 500 years.

[Savorgnan]

French hero's welcome for Betancourt

OK, now I understand why all this noise under my windows was caused by.

I live in Boulogne-Bétancourt. I must leave this place.

[orieleye]

Rómulo Ernesto Betancourt Bello (1908-1981), "The Father of Venezuelan Democracy", was President of Venezuela from 1945 to 1948 and again from 1959 to 1964, as well as leader of Accion Democratica - Venezuela's dominant political party in the 20th Century. He survived an assassination attempt ordered by Rafael Trujillo, dictator of the Dominican Republic. Betancourt, one of Venezuela's most important political figures led a tumultuous and highly controversial career in Latin American politics. Periods of exile brought Betancourt in contact with various Latin American countries as well as the United States, securing his legacy as one of the few real international leaders to emerge from twentieth-century Latin America. Scholars credit Betancourt as the Founding Father of modern democratic Venezuela.

Source

[Carnyx]

Originally Posted by Menydh

I didn't say that Ingrid Betancourt was the heir of Jean de Bethencourt. Not even the many Canarians with that family name, or the Colombians and Venezuelans descended from the Canarians.

Just pointing at the coincidence, as I've always believed that Ingrid Betancourt was French by adoption despite the family name.

One thing is for sure. Either we believe that many native Guanches were given the family name of Bethencourt at Baptism, or Jean de Bethencourt was a phenomenal stallion, given the spread of the name in little over 500 years.

The mighty AM stallion?

AFA the Betancourts are concerned, there might some French in the pile.

[Erik P]

Betancourt was born in Bogotá, Colombia, South America. Her mother, Yolanda Pulecio, was a former Miss Colombia [...] Her father, Gabriel Betancourt [...] The Betancourt family is one of Colombia's oldest aristocratic families, descended from immigrants from northern France who arrived from Grainville-la-Teinturière [in Normandy, Erik's edit] three centuries before.
[...]
As children, Betancourt and her elder sister, Astrid, were largely brought up in Paris

Wikipedia - Íngrid Betancourt and Wikipedia - Bettencourt

So what makes her "part French" is that she was brought up in Paris and her father's family came from France three centuries ago?

[Menydh]

Originally Posted by Erik Puke

So what makes her "part French" is that she was brought up in Paris and her father's family came from France three centuries ago?

No. I guess that what makes her a French citizen is that, while in Paris, she was married to a French diplomat, Maurice Delloye, with whom she had two children.