'They think we're terrorists': Colombia's female former guerrilla fighters find no peace

[Judi Lynn]

The 2016 ceasefire was supposed to help Farc’s ex-guerrillas reintegrate into society, but with little work and many having been murdered, fear stalks the camps


Shanti Das in Pondores
Sun 6 Nov 2022 07.00 EST

In a Colombian reintegration camp for former guerrilla fighters, María Rosalba García de Sepúlveda sits beneath a parrot wind chime next to her green and orange shack. Wearing leaf-pattern trousers and eating jam biscuits, she couldn’t be less threatening if she tried. But she feels her life is at risk. “You fear for your security at all times,” the 68-year-old says.

For 43 years Sepúlveda was part of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or Farc – a leftwing guerrilla group founded by farmers that spent five decades fighting the government.

After joining at 18 to escape rural poverty, she rose to become one of the few female commanders, known by her war name “Eliana”. Then, in 2016, a peace deal led her and 13,000 others to demobilise, and she moved to the Pondores reincorporation zone near the Venezuelan border.

Down a dirt track and guarded by soldiers with assault rifles, the camp in La Guajira, northern Colombia, feels like a prison at first. But the 400 or so residents, including 135 former guerrillas and their families, have done their best to make it their own.

The plywood-walled, metal-roofed homes are painted bright colours and small gardens are filled with flowers, dogs and toys. Anti-war murals are everywhere, like the building painted with doves and huge letters: “PAZ”.

More:
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/nov/06/colombia-female-former-guerrilla-fighters-farc