Gabriel Betancourt was born in Medellín on April 27, 1918, to Pedro Nolasco Adriano Betancur Toro and Mariana Mejía Arango as the youngest of 9 children.
Gabriel Betancourt was the father of the politician and former FARC hostage Íngrid Betancourt. Gabriel Betancourt divorced his wife Yolanda Pulecio in 1980 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.[1]