Even Silence Has an End: My Six Years of Captivity in the Colombian Jungle
A Bolt of Lightning tore through the forest, landing a few yards from me. In a burst of light, the space around me was revealed in all its horror. I was surrounded by gigantic trees, and was only two steps from falling into a ravine. I stopped short, totally blinded. I squatted to catch my breath among the roots of the tree just before me. I was on the verge of finally taking out my flashlight when I noticed intermittent flashes of light in the distance, headed my way. I could hear their...
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Ingrid Betancourt tells the story of her captivity in the Colombian jungle, sharing powerful teachings of resilience, resistance, and faith. Born in Bogotá, raised in France, Ingrid Betancourt at the age of thirty-two gave up a life of comfort and safety to return to Colombia to become a political leader in a country that was being slowly destroyed by terrorism, violence, fear, and a pervasive sense of hopelessness. In 2002, while campaigning as a candidate in the Colombian presidential elections, she was abducted by the FARC. Nothing could have prepared her for what came next. She would spend the next six and a half years in the depths of the jungle as a prisoner of the FARC. Even Silence Has an End is her deeply personal and moving account of that time. Chained day and night for much of her captivity, she never stopped dreaming of escape and, in fact, succeeded in getting away several times, always to be recaptured. In her most successful effort she and a fellow captive survived a week away, but were caught when her companion became desperately ill; she learned later that they had been mere miles from freedom. The facts of her story are astounding, but it is Betancourt's indomitable spirit that drives this very special account, bringing life, nuance, and profundity to the narrative. Attending as intimately to the landscape of her mind as she does to the events of her capture and captivity, Even Silence Has an End is a meditation on the very stuff of life-fear and freedom, hope and what inspires it. Betancourt tracks her metamorphosis, sharing how in the routines she established for herself-listening to her mother and two children broadcast to her over the radio, daily prayer-she was able to do the unthinkable: to move through the pain of the moment and find a place of serenity. Freed in 2008 by the Colombian army, today Betancourt is determined to draw attention to the plight of hostages and victims of terrorism throughout the world and it is that passion that motivates Even Silence Has an End. The lessons she offers here-in courage, resilience, and humanity-are gifts to treasure. The New York Times Book Review - Caroline Elkins Captive for more than a year in the jungles of Colombia, Ingrid Betancourt took to her insect infested cot, drained by despair. Fat Martha, her aptly nicknamed guard, had brought fresh news: the hell in which Betancourt was living wasn't harsh enough. A veritable concentration camp, complete with chain-link fences and barbed wire, was being thrown up in haste under the canopies of the country's impenetrable interior. In her gripping memoir…Betancourt captures the despondency wrought by Fat Martha's pronouncement with a blend of power and self-awareness that inscribes not just this one disturbing moment but her account's every page.
1 Escaping The Cage 12 Farewell 263 The Abduction 354 "El Mocho" Cesar 475 Sonia's Camp 576 The Death of My Father 737 Falling Into The Abyss 788 Taming The Hornets 869 The Strains of Communal Life 10110 Proof of Life 10911 The Little Wooden House 11412 Ferney 12213 Learning To Weave 12714 Melanie's Seventeenth Birthday 13115 Resentment and Remission 13516 The Raid 14117 The Cage 15018 Friends Who Come and Go 15419 Voices from The Outside 15920 A Visit from Joaquín Gómez 16321 Second Proof of Life 17122 The Fortune-Teller 17623 An Unexpected Encounter 18024 Giovanni's Camp 18425 In The Hands of The Shadow 19026 Sombra's Serenade 19627 The Barbed Wire 19928 The Satellite Antenna 20629 Inside The Prison 20930 The Arrival of The Americans 21431 The Big Row 21932 Roll Call 22533 Human Misery 22934 Lucho's Illness 23335 A Sad Christmas 24236 The Bickering 25037 The Chicken Run 25638 Back in The Prison 26239 Radio Roundup 26840 Gloria's Children 27841 The Petty Things of Hell 28142 The Dictionary 28643 My Friend Lucho 28944 The Child 29345 The Strike 29846 Birthdays 30347 The Big Departure 30748 Hepatitis 31049 Guillermo's Frisk 31550 Unexpected Support 31851 The Hammock 32352 Selling Hope 32753 The Group of Ten 33554 The Endless March 34355 The Chains 35156 The Honeymoon 35457 At The Gates of Hell 36158 Descent Into Hell 36759 The Devil 37260 Now or Never 37761 The Escape 38362 Freedom 39563 The Choice 40764 The End of The Dream 41165 Punishment 41666 The Retreat 42167 The Eggs 42668 Monster 42969 Lucho's Heart 43570 Pinchao's Escape 44271 The Death of Pinchao 45072 The Friend Marc 45673 The Ban 46374 The Letters 46975 The Separation 47576 Stroking Death 48077 Thied Proof of Life 48978 Lucho's Release 49579 The Disagreement 50480 The Sacred Heart 51181 The Trick 51482 The End of Silence 523
\ Larry RohterEven Silence Has an End,…is gripping not just for its heart-wrenching portrayal of captivity, but also because of the sharp and useful psychological insights it offers. With her life at stake, Ms. Betancourt proves quite perceptive in analyzing human behavior: the morale-sapping mind games that captives played with one another as well as the strategies she used in hopes of preserving some shred of dignity and keeping her guerrilla adversaries off balance.\ —The New York Times\ \ \ \ \ Caroline ElkinsCaptive for more than a year in the jungles of Colombia, Ingrid Betancourt took to her insect infested cot, drained by despair. Fat Martha, her aptly nicknamed guard, had brought fresh news: the hell in which Betancourt was living wasn't harsh enough. A veritable concentration camp, complete with chain-link fences and barbed wire, was being thrown up in haste under the canopies of the country's impenetrable interior. In her gripping memoir…Betancourt captures the despondency wrought by Fat Martha's pronouncement with a blend of power and self-awareness that inscribes not just this one disturbing moment but her account's every page.\ —The New York Times Book Review\ \
