A photo taken on July 2, 2008 shows Colombian former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt after being released by her FARC abductors.
Colombian former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt says she sees the possibility of peace between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
“For the first time in my life, I see the possibility of a peace process which ends with peace,” said Betancourt in an interview with a Colombian television reporter in Oxford, England on the fifth anniversary of her rescue from the FARC rebels on Tuesday.
She added that the two sides of the peace talks should expedite the process of negotiations.
“If the FARC are thinking of making a stand like when they were negotiating peace with Pastrana’s (former Colombian President Andrés Pastrana) government, they’re wrong, because Colombians have to see results fast,” the 51-year-old stated.
The Colombian activist also made remarks regarding her abduction back in 2002, saying she got up excited “thinking about the extraordinary people that came to rescue us.”
“The officials and members of the army, they really were heroes,” she said.
In February 2002, the FARC rebels kidnapped Betancourt in the south of Colombia, and held her captive until July 2, 2008 when she was saved by a number of Colombian army commandos.
The rebels have been holding talks with government officials in Cuban capital Havana, following an initial round of discussions in Oslo, Norway in November 2012.
On Monday, the two sides began the eleventh round of talks in Havana.
FARC is Latin America’s oldest insurgent group and has been fighting the government since 1964.
The Colombian government estimates that 600,000 people have been killed and three million people have been internally displaced by the fighting.
The rebel organization is thought to have around 8,000 fighters operating across a large swathe of the eastern jungles of the Andean nation.
NT/AS
Republished with permission from: Press TV