Dear Bill,

Thank you for crediting my translation.

Why are you so willing to give Betancourt time to "find her legs" when she herself has not shown any desire for that? That she should willingly rush to the microphone, accept the liberation show at face value and heap praise on those who were really responsible for her six year sojourn in the jungle ought to tell you that she's not quite right in the head. Because let's face it, if a ransom was paid (and I believe Ingrid's response to this question was "so what?"), then the FARC was not keeping her there all this time, her "liberators" were.

What's mean-spirited is not my criticism of Betancourt but a military operation that is staged to resemble the previously successful humanitarian releases that were achieved in exchange for nothing, to cover up the fact that it was not the clever, marvelous rescue that the media (and Betancourt, with her willing participation) are promoting, but a bought-and-paid-for operation by a lying, cheating, murderous bunch of thieves. It's not just mean-spirited, it's criminal, and Betancourt, who has every reason to beg off but doesn't, is complicit and deserves plenty of criticism for it.