There was humiliations, cruelty, abuse, violence. And they were all the time trying to put to fight the prisoners one against the other, filling us with wrong information about the others or giving privileges to some so that the others would feel jealous and would react. And I could see how they were manipulating us.
Ingrid BetancourtI knew of no instruction manual for reaching a higher level of humanity and a greater wisdom. But I felt intuitively that laughter was the beginning of wisdom, as is was indispensable for survival.
Ingrid BetancourtSometimes you hear in the United States that in Columbia there is a war between rich and poor, between people that are defending the poor and the rich.
Ingrid BetancourtWhatever you could do with your hands was important because it kept you in a motion of being able to produce something, and producing something kept you balanced in a way.
Ingrid BetancourtIf you begin to have a relationship where you're doing what the guards want, and once you're out you will see that as a treason, a treason to your country, a treason to yourself, a treason to everybody, so you have to be very cautious on what is the perspective you're looking at yourself, and you have always to see yourself like from the outside.
Ingrid BetancourtWe're too passive. We're feeding on too much rubbish and I think we should strive to just shrug away that comfort zone and be able to get the most of each one of us, which means restructuring the way we deal with time and the priorities we have in life, so being what we want to be I think should be something that we should keep in mind.
Ingrid Betancourt