Washington - "It was hell," Ingrid Betancourt told CNN's Larry King in an interview aired Wednesday of her six years as a hostage of a leftist rebel group in Colombia. "It was hell. It was hell for the body, it was hell for the soul, it was hell for the mind," she said during the interview from Paris, France.
Franco-Colombian Betancourt was campaigning for the Colombian presidency when the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) abducted her in 2002.
"For me, I thought perhaps it could last for three months at the most. I couldn't imagine what was going to come," she told King.
Betancourt and 14 others, including three US contractors, were rescued July 2 in an elaborately planned operation by the Colombian Army that fooled the FARC.
During her campaign for Colombia's presidency Betancourt had met with FARC leaders, imploring them, "No more kidnapping."
"I thought that perhaps we had that common ground. I was mistaken. I didn't understand that they think completely different.
"If you don't work with them, if you are not one of the members of that club, you are an enemy," she added. "I didn't know I was their enemy, but I was."
Betancourt wouldn't answer questions regarding Emmanuel, the child born in captivity to her running mate, Clara Rojas - who was captured along with her - or whether she was sexually abused.
She did speak of a "horrible" punishment after an escape attempt but declined to elaborate.
"I don't want to fill myself with those memories," she said.
"There are things that are going to stay in the jungle."
Betancourt said that one of her most horrible thoughts was realizing that "human beings can be so horrible to other human beings."
She has returned to France since her release to be reunited with her children and her mother, but remains concerned with the fate of other hostages held in the FARC-controlled jungles.
"We could be over there, we could be the ones left in the jungle," she said. "We had this incredible luck to be here, so for me it's very, very important, very important to ask all the people that can help us to fight for the release of the ones who are still in the jungle."
