Name: Ingrid Betancourt
Title: Senator in Colombia’s parliamentBackground: The daughter of the Colombian ambassador to France, she received most of her education in France. Upon her return to Colombia with her French diplomat husband in 1990, she began her political career.

Betancourt served in the House of Representatives for four years and later became a senator for another four. As a founder of the Oxygen Green Party (an outgrowth of the Green Party), Betancourt has attempted to rid the government of corruption, including fighting for the political judgment of then President Ernesto Samper for alleged drug campaign financing.

Her efforts have brought many death threats, causing her family to move first to New Zealand, and now to an undisclosed country for safety. She travels with an attachment of no fewer than 10 bodyguards.

Spotlight: Betancourt is currently preparing to run for president. A recent poll showed her with only five percent of the popular vote. The same polls taken during her initial run for the Senate, however, showed her with less than one percent of the popular vote, and she won that race by the largest margin in Colombia’s history.

Her campaign centers on ridding Colombia of its well-known corruption. One of the largest concerns is that she may be killed before she can accomplish such a monumental task.

Colombia has long been a center of political instability and drug activity, providing much of the cocaine for the United States. A civil war has raged in the country for the past 40 years, killing an estimated 30,000 annually.

Colombia is in danger of becoming the next Afghanistan, with the drug trade replacing religious fanaticism. Such an event could destabilize all of South America, which would be an even greater threat to the United States than what is now seen in the Middle East. Betancourt is seen by many to represent one of the strongest hopes for avoiding such a catastrophe.