Small Wars Journal

Life after FARC: Rebellion Was Their Only Job. Now Former Guerrillas Struggle to Understand Civilian Life

Mon, 07/23/2018 - 5:50pm

Life after FARC: Rebellion Was Their Only Job. Now Former Guerrillas Struggle to Understand Civilian Life by Stephanie Nolen - Globe & Mail

… In 2016, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC, in Spanish), weakened by a years-long military offensive and offered a dignified end to its fight, signed a peace deal with the government of Colombia.

With the end of the 53-year war, former combatants had the chance to meet up with family members they had not seen in decades. But even with family, Ms. Rodriguez says, they don’t have much to say; when you’ve been in the guerrilla for 20 years, it’s hard to chat to people who don’t know that life…

They are among 12,400 former FARC fighters who demobilized last year and are building new lives. It’s not a huge number of people in a country of 50 million, but the success or failure of this project has taken on new urgency as other guerrilla organizations, and dissident FARC members who did not accept the peace and did not demobilize, continue to destabilize large areas of the country…

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