Gabriel Betancourt Mejía (27 April 1918, Bogotá - 23 March 2002, Bogotá) was a Colombian politician and diplomat.
Betancourt was minister for the General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla dictatorship (1953-1957), the assistant director of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), ambassador to the embassy in Paris[1], and head of the education commission of the Alliance for Progress in Washington, D.C. under John F. Kennedy.
Gabriel Betancourt was the father of the politician and former FARC hostage Íngrid Betancourt. Gabriel Betancourt divorced in 1975 and was granted custody of his daughters. Gabriel Betancourt died of heart and respiratory trouble a month after Íngrid's kidnapping, without seeing his daughter again.[2]