Ingrid Betancourt Prince of Asturias Award for Concord 2008

At its meeting in Oviedo, the Jury for the 2008 Prince of Asturias Award for Concord, made up of Fernando de Almansa, Viscount of Castillo de Almansa, Adolfo Barthe Aza, Antonio Brufau Niubó, José Celma Prieto, Ramón Colao Caicoya, Jacobo Cosmen Menéndez-Castañedo, Francisco Daurella Franco, Juan Manuel Desvalls, Marquis del Poal, Isidro Fainé Casas, Pedro Luis Fernández Pérez, Paz Fernández Felgueroso, Francisco de la Fuente Sánchez, Juan Ramón García Secades, Ignacio Garralda Ruiz de Velasco, Vicente Gotor Santamaría, Juan Luis Iglesias Prada, José Luis Méndez López, Fernando Menéndez Rexach, Marcelino Oreja Aguirre, Helena Revoredo de Gut, Ángel Ron Güimil, Román Suárez Blanco, Antonio Suárez Gutiérrez, Antonio Trevín Lombán, José María Villanueva Fernández, Santiago de Ybarra y Churruca, Santiago Zaldumbide Viadas, chaired by Vicente Álvarez Areces and with Pedro de Silva Cienfuegos-Jovellanos acting as secretary, has decided unanimously to bestow the 2008 Prince of Asturias Award for Concord on Ingrid Betancourt.

Ingrid Betancourt personifies all those people in the world who have been deprived of their freedom as a result of their defence of human rights and their fight against terrorist violence, corruption and drug trafficking.

By highlighting the strength, dignity and valour with which Ingrid Betancourt faced six years of unjust captivity, the Jury wishes to express its solidarity with all those who suffer the same dramatic, inadmissible conditions that she has suffered, as well as with those governments which, just like the Government of the Republic of Colombia, work to consolidate the democratic system and civil liberties.

Oviedo, 10th September 2008