The Story of a Child Soldier: Mélida

Mélida, 9 years old at the time was along the river when soldiers drew her attention by saying they had soup in their canoe. Later, she woke up among several other children, each around the same age as her in a FARC camp. Their first lesson was hiding in trenches during bombings.

Her father, Moisés, was away at the time and did not begin searching for her until a month later, he arrived at the closest guerrilla camp and said: “I came for my daughter, ” but was told she wasn’t with them.

In the camp, Mélida had been renamed Marisol and began learning about communism. She also soon learned that if she tried to escape the FARC she would be executed.

Years after she was kidnapped, FARC rebels passed through her village and told her family that she died in an attack. Her father said that after that, he just forgot about her.

Meanwhile, a commander in his 40s had taken an interest in her. He would follow her around the camp. Then when she was 15, he asked her to wash his clothes in his tent.

“Give me a kiss,” she recalled him saying.

“I don’t know how,” she told him.

“Then I’ll teach you,” he said.

She was later forced to take birth control as he forced her into a relationship with him. “Imagine waking up next to someone who was that old when you are that young,” she said.

At 16, she was finally able to visit her family, however, the next day she was turned into the military by her father.

“He wanted me not to go back perhaps,” she said. “He wanted the best for me.”

But Moisés explained why: “I wanted to buy a motorcycle, they never gave me the reward I was promised.”

After being interrogated Mélida was taken to a government rehabilitation centre for former FARC soldiers. War was constantly on Mélida’s mind,“When I would get up, I would reach beside me to take my rifle and realize there wasn’t one there.”

At night, Mélida began sneaking out of the centre with a man named Javier, whose mother, Dora was a cook there. He was nine years older than Mélida, and the two would go party in a nearby town.

 In 2004, Javier’s brother was killed by a FARC sniper. His family had a strong resentment towards the guerrillas. Despite this, Mélida and Javier realized they were falling in love.

One day Mélida’s birth control implant failed and she became pregnant. Javier’s mother told her,“Now you have something to fight for that’s not the revolution.” Her daughter, Celeste, was born. The daily tasks of motherhood consumed Mélida for weeks. But her anger always remained with her.

Recently, Mélida’s cousin Leila, a former FARC member, committed suicide. Mélida sometimes travels to visit the unmarked grave.

Dora says Mélida is too strong to take her own life. But she worries Mélida might return to the guerrillas. “She is a good mother and puts her daughter first,” she says. “But she also tells me she is bored and doesn’t like this life. And I tell her: ‘If you want to leave, then leave. But think of the girl. Leave Celeste with me.’ ”

 

Child Soldiers in the FARC

“There will be justice” Pastor Alape, Member of FARC’s high command.

But how far will they go to achieve their supposed justice? Will they go so far as to mass murdering, holding innocent lives hostage sometimes as long as a decade, displacing young children from their families, and heavily participating in drug trafficking?

The answer is yes.

The FARC was founded in 1964 by land workers and farmers living in poverty, they saw the success that Cuban rebels had and wanted to imitate it for themselves. They have had the same mission for over half a century: to fight against the overwhelming social inequality in Colombia; they are a far left political activist group, they aim for enforcing a communist society in Colombia. Their income money comes from drug trafficking as Colombia is a major producer of cocaine. They are responsible for the killing of 220,000 people, it is estimated that of these people 4 of every 5 were civilians not in combat, it is also estimated that around 6.8 million people have been displaced because of the FARC.

Since 1975, around 14,000 child soldiers have been recruited to join the FARC, they accept children strong enough to carry a 40-pound pack and able to fire an AK47. These children suffer during their time being a FARC soldier: their lives have little worth to the rebel group, therefore, they are given risky jobs like guards as the commanders don’t want to use their most skilled soldiers. Since children are less detectable as spies because they seem more innocent many of them become spies. Once they become older and stronger they work directly in combat. 

Not all children were forcibly recruited some of them actually willingly volunteered to join- many of these children did not understand the reality of what it meant to join (they will never be able to see their family again, get low pay, and die if they try to escape.) Many children that joined were homeless or desperate to join, some were running away from an abusive home. The FARC tells them, “forget your family, we are your new family now.” Many youths felt a sense of revenge provoking their actions of joining the FARC. Children were joining rival groups to avenge a death and so it became a self-perpetuating cycle of violence.

About 30-35% of the child soldiers in the FARC were female. Pregnancy was theoretically illegal in these groups since it removes the female combatant from carrying out their main duties. There were still incidents of abuse: in some groups, there was a ‘competition’ for girls,  for who got the prettiest young girl. There were cases reported where 13-year-old girls were with 45-year-old commanders. Women and girls were forced to take contraceptive injections and if they did become pregnant, they were forced to get an abortion or their children were sent to others to care for them. Many pregnant girls who tried to escape from avoiding abortion were executed.

“If a girl comes at 15 as a prostitute and wants to join us to stop being a wh*re, what are we going to say?” Teófilo Panclasta (FARC commander) states defending the use of child soldiers, saying that many joined to escape trouble at home.

FARC leaders might view that using child soldiers is justifiable for their good cause as they are fighting for social equality and communistic principles- however, this is no excuse for the horrors they force these children to undergo. They also put no effort into making peace as they have manipulated the government into believing they are after peace deals to only reject it and continue building their force through land acquisition, money through cocaine trafficking, and power by holding people hostage. What started as an innocent protest from individuals living in poverty has turned into a hateful war of crime.

On October 2, 2017, there was a national vote: Do you support the final agreement for the conclusion of the armed conflict and the construction of a stable and lasting peace? The results were 50.2% of voters said no while 49.8% were in favour. Even though the majority wanted to keep the war, the government still continued with negotiating peace deals. There is a progression towards peace as the FARC has stated that they will solidify the peace deals made with the Colombian government through releasing their child soldiers.

Colombia is nearing a peace agreement with the rebels to end a half-century of fighting. More than 220,000 people have been killed, leaving a country bitterly divided over what role, if any, former rebels should play in society once they drop their weapons for a new, unarmed life outside the jungle. This includes thousands of rebel fighters who were raised since childhood to carry out armed struggle. Many of them know little else but war.

After leaving the FARC many youths are easily prone to becoming criminals on the streets or in gangs which starts an entirely new problem. Now that the FARC war might be over criminal gangs, whether cartels or street gangs may see this as an opportunity to recruit child soldiers.

“If poor or botched reintegration programs fail to offer opportunities to former child combatants, Colombia’s powerful paramilitaries and trafficking groups may offer them a tempting alternative,” said Adam Isacson, a senior analyst at the Washington Office on Latin America, a human rights group.

In the government houses, curfews are in place and they are given accommodation, food, psychosocial sessions and are made to attend school. They have to learn how to be children again, learn how to trust again and learn some basic life skills. But they cannot continue in the programme after they turn 18 and so the government needs to provide more resources to support these children in the long term. Former FARC child soldiers face a difficult process trying to reintegrate back into their home communities, or going back to school. They often feel like they are caught between two worlds not fitting in as they are part soldier, part civilian.

“It strips the FARC of all credibility in terms of their supposed will to make peace. You can’t have peace with crimes like this.” Enrique Parejo.

Citations

Featured Image:  https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Revolutionary_Armed_Forces_of_Colombia_(FARC)_insurgents.GIF

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-36605769

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-36606568

http://theconversation.com/colombias-peace-plebiscite-the-case-for-yes-and-the-case-for-no-66325

https://www.child-soldiers.org/news/the-novel-placing-colombias-child-soldiers-centre-stage

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/28/world/americas/colombia-farc-child-soldiers.html

https://www.cnn.com/2016/09/10/americas/farc-colombia-release-child-soldiers/index.html

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/25/colombia-conflict-death-toll-commission