Experience Changes People

Ex-hostage no longer wants to negotiate with armed opposition.

"I was in chains all the time, 24 hours a day, for three years," she said. "I tried to wear those chains with dignity, even if I felt that it was unbearable."

Asked if she had been tortured, she said, "Yes, yes," and said her captors had fallen into "diabolical behaviour," adding: "It was so monstrous I think they themselves were disgusted."

Some Colombians who recalled the centre-left politician's openness to negotiating with those same rebels during her campaign against Uribe were stunned to hear her praise his 2006 re-election as "very good for Colombia."
-- Associated Press, Toronto Star