Captors Turned Brutal After Betancourt Escape Attempt

Ingrid Betancourt and the other former hostages of Colombia’s FARC faced aggression and abuse from their captors—and each other, CNN reports. Rebels were relatively cordial until Betancourt and former Colombian legislator Luis Perez made an escape attempt in 2005, surviving for 5 days in the jungle before they gave up.

"When we handed ourselves in, then there was absolute repression by the guerrillas," Perez tells CNN. Hostages, who had been chained only at night, were subsequently chained by the throat 24 hours a day—to trees, at first, then to other hostages. And their boots were taken away, causing their feet to rot. Friction mounted, he said, and some hostages protected Betancourt from aggression by others. (More Ingrid Betancourt stories.)