Ex-hostage Betancourt urges Colombian president to tone down 'hate' speech toward rebels

[Judi Lynn]

Ex-hostage Betancourt urges Colombian president to tone down 'hate' speech toward rebels
ASSOCIATED PRESS
6:16 a.m. July 7, 2008

PARIS – Former hostage Ingrid Betancourt urged Colombia's president and others in the South American nation Monday to tone down their “radical, extremist language of hate” toward the leftist rebels who held her captive for six years.

~snip~
Current polls show her popularity level is high but many Colombians feel alienated from politics.

“That makes me want to serve Colombia with all my heart, but I think that it is too early to talk of such things,” she said on Radio France International.

Noting the possibility that Colombian President Alvaro Uribe could seek a third presidential term, Betancourt said, “Why not?”

She praised his efforts toward her release, but also sent him a warning.

“Uribe, and not only Uribe but all of Colombia, should also correct some things,” she said. “We have reached the point where we must change the radical, extremist vocabulary of hate, of very strong words that intimately wound the human being.”

More:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/20080707-0616-france-betancourt.html

[EFerrari]

1. This statement is interesting in light of our earlier conversation.

That film was put together after she had been captured. I wonder if she's seen it yet.