Chávez's Favorite Pariahs
The most electrifying political moment I have witnessed came about a dozen years ago, when a young woman in a T-shirt adorned with the image of an elephant strode to the front of the Colombian Senate chamber and denounced the pervasive drug corruption rotting her nation from within.
For three hours, broadcast on national television, Sen. Ingrid Betancourt laid out the case against President Ernesto Samper for taking drug money. She demanded his impeachment. The image on her white shirt represented drug corruption, the elephant in the room that no one dared discuss.
Ingrid, who was a source when I covered Colombia for The Post and is also my friend, is still paying for her courageous action in June 1996, when most of Colombia was cowed by cocaine barons and their political surrogates.… Seguir leyendo »