From the mountains of Casanare and Arauca to the savannahs of Meta

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Flag of Colombia.

If in any population you asked a boy what he wanted to be when he is older, he will answered without any hint of doubt "paramilitary" or "guerrilla".

From the mountains of Casanare and Arauca to the savannahs of Meta

If in any population you asked a boy what he wanted to be when he is older, he will answered without any hint of doubt "paramilitary" or "guerrilla".

Violence has taken over everything. Of the region, peoples, families and individuals. As Juvenal Quintero account, a resident of Mapiripán (Meta) "is both the harassment (from the guerrillas) that the children should perfectly differentiate the sound of an exhaust pipe to the firing of a gun" In the language of children the acts of violence they witness or hear about it so often played. The “pelaítos” (childrens) are learning to identify themselves within the conflict, in which both fear and admiration leaves one certainty: that to survive in this life he has to be one of "hard".

If in any population you asked a boy what he wanted to be when he is older, he will answered without any hint of doubt "paramilitary" or "guerrilla", depending who is ruling the territory. "At 15, you're a teenager, you have a lot of adrenaline and you see a man with a gun in a Rambo style, that will excites you, and of course the children will excited, they will become “rambos”. What happens then is that the reality is different in the words of Yeni Guzman.

The rules of war make daily life to change. Nobody trusts anybody, and due to the constant vigilance can´t be yourself. Parent, who know no other language than that of violence, abuse their children, and create these thoughts of hatred, which in turn is evident in schools. In conflict zones teaching methods are different, as Héctor Ariel Vazquez said, who worked as a trainer at a rural school in El Dorado (Meta) and tried to remove that feeling of frustration in their students, "at first he used the game as a teaching tool for resolving conflicts peacefully. In the beginning they were a little confused and complacent, but then I begin to build trust between them, and improved in many facets, their relationships with their parents and peers".

Women try to mate with one of the commanders of the armed groups to feel protected, and because it gives them status. Prostitutes, considered as the damsels of the conflict, they go from battle to battle, seeking sustenance for their children, and that in a week can get up to four million pesos (1800 €).

From the mountains to the cities

From the mountains of Casanare and Arauca to the savannahs of Meta the same story is repeated. Victims of violence, poverty and fear for their lives, many families are forced to leave the land they love and take refuge in the cities. Sometimes it is the same armed groups that forced them out of their homes. As Benjamin Palacios said "they come and threaten, and one has to leave for the city, or if not you come and give it (kill) one".

"When violence came we had to leave everything behind and go to the town. We never imagined that the movement would be a one way trip, no point of arrival. We are moving, but we do not progress. Looking back, we've been in three ‘points’ during this trip -the violence at the field before leaving, the misery of the slums after we moved, and insomnia- now that we've returned to what was our home. One never ceases to be ‘a moved’. It's a brand, a way of life”, says one affected by violence. The displaced knows that when he takes the way there, something substantial change in your life, you will never be the same, even when you return home.

These silent peacemakers, who preferred the exodus before entering the logic of living and dying in fields sown with terror and despair, are charged with the heavy cross of marginalization and stigmatization. In addition to frustration, depression, low self-esteem and grief for being in a context that is unknown to them, must feel the rejection of civil society. Many people branded as thieves, and some try to take advantage of their situation to give hurt and get what they want. Meanwhile, the state only remember at election time, "to me the state has not helped me with practically nothing. The only people who have helped me are the International Red Cross, and they only helped me with when I left with a “mini market” (mercaditos)” says Benjamin. Millions of dollars are spent annually in the purchase of arms and supplying the Army, and the limited funds appropriated to aid programs such as housing, health or education, are diverted for other purposes.

Who will return peace to men and women who saw from impotence how the change from their screaming mountains they learned from their ancestors by the cry of death permeated into memory like an echo that never ends? Who explains to the children crammed into tiny corners of the urban slums of Villavicencio, what happened to the river, the home, school, fruits and flowers? What explanation can we give to the grandparents silenced with deep sadness that left them abandoned by its people and destroyed? For over forty years, the war has left, leaving an immense and almost irreparable damage.

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