I heard a bit of this while driving home after a long, frustratingly typical Monday at work. Pierre Bensusan was being interviewed on NPR and was discussing how this song, “Altiplanos” is dedicated to Ingrid Betancourt, a Columbian political reformist who was running for president of Columbia when she was kidnapped by FARC, the left-wing revolutionary movement. Bensusan is trying to keep Ingrid Betancourt on the conscience of the world, and hopes that one she will be sitting in a concert hall listening as he plays the song dedicated to her.

It’s beautiful music and very moving, and although I hadn’t heard of Betancourt before, I’ll be thinking of her from now on.

UPDATE: The joyful news that Ingrid Betancourt and 3 Americans were rescued in a daring operation is still resonating across France and the rest of the world. I heard a bit of another song that was played in France at one of the celebrations, may need to track that one down, too. It’s calld “Dans La Jungle,” but there may be another one out there as well.

But I was somewhat suspicious of the timing, while McCain was in Columbia, and it turns out that the White House is claiming to have assisted with planning. This doesn’t take away from my happiness at Betancourt’s release, but the later news that came out about McCain meeting with Jeb Bush in Mexico makes me think that the Repubs will stop at nothing, and use anybody, to further their party’s chances at winning the presidential election.

Be that as it may, here’s a link to Betancourt’s rescue committee website, which proclaims (I think) “Ingrid is finally free!” Also a rather moving song with video plays at this site.

This site seems to suggest that the release was purchased by the US Government. It’s in French, and Google Translate garbles it somewhat. I think for example, that “as if written on music paper” probably means “as if choreographed,” for example. Still, it would be interesting to see a followup from a US news organization. Although, given the way things have been going, we’ll probably wait a long time for that to happen.