VICTORIA, Seychelles (eTN) – Mrs. Ingrid Betancourt, the former hostage held by the guerillas in the jungles of Columbia who was freed early last month, has arrived in Seychelles for a month’s holiday with her two children, Melanie and Lorenzo.

The French press has reported that the island’s President James Alix Michel has invited Mrs. Betancourt to Seychelles. Mrs. Betancourt has lived in this Indian Ocean Island from 1984 to 1986 when her first husband, Mr. Fabrice Delloye, was a French diplomat based here in Victoria, the capital of the Seychelles. Mrs. Betancourt’s daughter Melanie was born in Seychelles in 1985.

Mrs. Ingrid Betancourt and her two children will be able to enjoy a well-deserved beach holiday after her ordeal as captive in the Colombian jungles in the hands of armed guerrillas. She was born in Bogota on the December 25, 1961 and was a Columbian senator who campaigned as an anti-corruption activist. She was captured by the FARC guerrilla movement on February 23, 2002 while campaigning in the presidential elections. She was freed along with 14 other hostages on the July 2, 2008 by an operation undertaken by the military of Colombia.

The Nouvel Observateur in France stated in its report on Mrs. Betancourt’s Seychelles holidays that she has many friends in the Indian Ocean region, including the family of the former Minister Jacques Hodoul, now a Judge of the Seychelles Appeals Court.

It was also stated that she breast-fed the son of the former opposition strong man in Seychelles at the same time as she was feeding her own daughter Melanie.