Welcome to Hard Talk on the BBC World Service with me, Stephen Sacker. My guest today is making her

second bid to become president of her country, Colombia, which in itself is remarkable, because

in the course of her first campaign back in 2002, Ingrid Betancourt endured an experience of

such unimaginable and protracted horror,

it would have been understandable if she'd walked away from politics and the public gaze forever.

Twenty years ago, Miss Betancourt was kidnapped by FARC guerrillas

and held captive deep in the jungle for more than six years.

She and many other captives were routinely abused. When she was finally rescued by Colombian special forces, she chose to spend much of the

following years in Europe. She has French as well as Colombian citizenship. She focused on

renewing her relationship with her two children and studying theology at Oxford

University.

But now she is back in Colombia, determined to contest May's presidential election as an anti-corruption

candidate taking on Colombia's entrenched networks of patronage and power. She says she must

finish what she started all those years ago. But is that possible? Well, Ingrid Bettencourt joins me

now on the line from Bogota. Welcome to Hard Talk. Thank you for having me, Stephen. It's

really, really a pleasure after so many years.

Yeah, it is many years since we last spoke.

And that, of course, was when you got out of jungle captivity in 2008.

But I want to begin by taking you back a full 20 years to your running for the presidency in 2002. That, of course, was the campaign

during which you were taken and held captive by FARC guerrillas. It seems extraordinary

that you've decided to run again. Are you simply reviving your own personal trauma by doing so?

I think it's what I feel I have to do. It's like the vector of my life. And it's also a strong

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