Present Report

Female Killers in Colombia's War

For almost half a century, communism has attempted to usurp power in Colombia through terrorism and violence. The conflict set in motion by those subversives has changed and become degraded during this period, and in the process has taken on characteristics which differentiate it from most other irregular wars that have terrorised the world. One of these characteristics has been women acting as combatants. Throughout history, women have frequently played supporting roles to their men, who have actually fought wars. Women, of course, have always been victims of irregular conflicts. The Colombian conflict, however, is an exceptional case as far as women are concerned, for not only have they been victims or played a supporting role, they have actually taken part as combatants, even taking command of fighting units.

By Ángela Romero

The armed Marxist organisations that are attempting to win power in Colombia have gradually come to use every terrorist technique and tactic in the book, including kidnapping and extortion, recruiting minors, planting landmines, attacking towns and villages, and economic sabotage. As always, a disproportionate percentage of the victims have come from the most vulnerable groups - women and children. These have suffered the worst affronts to their dignity imaginable, have seen their friends and neighbours murdered, and have undergone forced displacement and every scourge possible in a degrading war.

WOMEN AT WAR

Women have always been looked on as war booty in every armed conflict mankind has ever engaged in, to be raped, forced to work, driven from their homes, and suffer the shame of seeing their sons killed or their daughters raped.

Women have played a role in Colombia's historical process down the years, and it should be stressed that that role has always been an important one, too. During the independence campaigns, many women got together to support the patriots in their struggle for a free nation. They worked as nurses, cooked food, did sewing, and followed the patriot army, suffering the same way as their men when the weather was bad and the same punishments at the hands of the enemy. Some, like Policarpa Salavarrieta, acted as links with the Republican guerrillas or spies, and suffered the same fate as other patriots when the were found out and captured: they were shot. Nevertheless, combat as such and the commanding of fighting units was always a man's job.

In the current conflict, however, many women have moved on from the role of victims or helpers, and have become fighters themselves. Nowadays they kill, kidnap, extort, and force children to join their ranks, thus violating Article 77 in Geneva Protocol I (children should not take part directly in hostilities) and Article 5 in Protocol II (children under the age of 15 should not recruited or take part in hostilities). These female guerrillas have become fundamental elements of terrorist organisations, often holding high-level posts in them.

ONCE IN, THERE'S NO WAY OUT

Men and women are recruited into guerrilla groups in the same way. In some parts of the country they volunteer to join the organisation, but in others they are forced to join. "You have to take them from their homes by force, because one person per family has to serve...... More women are recruited by force, something like 60%, because once a young girl is in, it's harder for her to get out again, because they get more attached to the organisation", according to alias Oliver, a demobilised political leader from the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC).

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It is clear to FARC that everyone who joins the guerrilla group is in it for life. Being shot is always the punishment for anyone who decides to desert.

Most women who are recruited live in a constant state of slavery. They have no choice when it comes to thinking and deciding on their freedom, all they can do is obey and kill. Many of them, because they have generally been recruited by the FARC when they were still under-age and have suffered terrible hardships over a long period of time, have become oblivious to pain. They think it only natural that their own misfortunes should be repeated time and time again in boys and girls from villages in the countryside, peasants, the elderly, women......... Colombia.

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There are currently approximately 6,000 women in the FARC and ELN. Some 50 female guerrillas are high on the national government's most wanted list, as they have been charged with terrorism, rebellion and kidnapping, amongst other crimes.

To quote alias Oliver once more, "many of them will say 'but I don't want to go off into the wilds', so you say to them 'but you don't have to, you can do it in the city'. Women are more useful there, doing intelligence work, in finances, especially that, in finances. And reporting in is very easy..... Every couple of months, they go to the area; there's no problem for them to go to La Calera, or even somewhere right here in Bogotá".

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The book "Los Parias de la Guerra", which was published in 2005 by sociologist José Armando Cárdenas Sarrias, relates some of the experiences of former members of insurgent groups, and their views on death and God. One of them had this to say: "you can't believe in God, the commanders tell you that clearly, that God is an invention of the system..... but the worst of all is that I saw comrades tied up because of their Catholic behaviour. Once they tied up a young lad, when one of the leaders ordered him to be tied up simply because he recited the Lord's prayer every night in his bed".

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We can therefore say that the idea of God in these organisations is very different, in many aspects. God is the weapon, and the weapon or God is put to the test in battle, because the aim is to come out of it well, to avoid not only the enemy's bullets but also those of the organisation itself. This is what Cárdenas Sarrias says in his book.

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The idea of death is something that members of these groups accept calmly. This is what former FARC combatant alias Oliver had to say on this point: "We don't view death like other people do, as something tragic. We look on it as something we are involved in. It's a very real possibility, but there's no existential reflection on it, or any criticism of it. Death is something I conceive of only for me and my comrades, not for anyone else, and that's why it's so easy to kill":

Men and women alike have become dehumanised in the ranks of illegal armed organisations. There are women whose shrewdness, brutality, persistence and leadership qualities have meant they have become commanders.

SOME FEMALE COMMANDERS

Alias "Karina": the most wanted

Nelly Ávila Moreno, alias "Karina", is currently one of the most wanted commanders in the country. This woman commands the FARC's 47th Front, and bears the signs of various war wounds: a gunshot wound in one of her arms, a scar on her skull from when she was shot in the face, and one eye missing, the result of an attack on Pavarandó Army Base in Antioquia on 3 August 1998. "Karina" is one of the best known female guerrillas in the country. She has won an important position for herself in the FARC hierarchical structure.

She became a well-known public figure because of the role she played in the failed peace negotiations with the government of former President Andrés Pastrana. According to intelligence reports, "Karina" is roughly 40 years' old, and operates in Caldas, Antioquia and Risaralda provinces. The file on her includes six arrest warrants, four of them in Bogotá, one in Medellín and the other in Cali, for murder, terrorism, rebellion, kidnapping for purposes of extortion, and damage to third party property. This woman has the sad reputation of being more cruel than many other guerrilla leaders.

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Nayibe Rojas Valderrama, alias "Sonia"

She was captured on 10 February 2004 and later extradited to the United States on 10 March 2005 on charges of conspiring to import, distribute and manufacture cocaine there. A communiqué from the Public Prosecutor's Office claimed that "Sonia" was the head of finance for the FARC's 14th Front. She administered the purchase and sale of cattle, and distributed money for buying basic coca paste. She also received income from kidnappings, extortion activities and drug trafficking, an offence which she admitted to at her early judgement hearing.

Various quotations were also found in a computer of hers that was confiscated for buying telescopic sights, AR-15 rifles and ammunition for AK-47 rifles. However, what most caught the eye was technical information about an MI Russian helicopter, made in 1988. The guerrilla leader received details of the aircraft in an e-mail from one of her contacts, which stated that it would be used for "transporting weapons and moving drugs around in he jungle" (taken from 'El Tiempo').

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When a woman joins a rebel group, she has to face constant sexual harassment, a lack of education, and the loss of her freedom. She is subjected to harsh treatment, heavy work and threats. She is forced to kill and mutilate bodies. Gradually, all this means she ends up behaving cruelly and inhumanely towards her comrades and the entire civilian population.