ROBIN HOOD OR PINOCCHIO

Anyone who has read “A Hundred Years of Solitude” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez knows the history of the civil wars in Colombia since the nineteen century. As a result of many years of social conflicts in Colombia, an organization called the National Liberation Army (ELN) was founded in 1987. The ELN was inspired by the Cuban Revolution, and it was relied on the strategies of Che Guevara. This group was an expression of resistance against the government and the unequal society. The ELN wanted to be Colombian’s Robin Hood. Their vision was to protect the poor people, fight against the oligarchy, and develop an equal society. Unfortunately, as the years passed, their dream of a socialist country become just a mask to hide their dirty purposes of richness and power. They started dealing drugs, kidnapping and killing people for money. The ELN became the image of our country in the world. Everywhere, Colombia was synonymous with guerrillas and drugs. They painted the history of Colombia with red and black and with blood and death, affecting my family in several ways.

The ELN caused a massive movement of farmers and indigenous from the land to the cities. They needed a big army to fight, so they forced young people to join them. As a result, families started moving to the cities afraid of losing their members and their lives. They also needed places to stay and food to eat, so they used violence to make people leave their farms. Around the cities you could see Indians barely dressed asking for money, and breast feeding their babies, with three or four children by their side. On their lands, they used to have everything to live, sown fields and animals. In contrast, they were lost and hungry in the city. This situation created a lot of poverty and insecurity in the cities. Some members of my family were victims of this. For example, my grandfather used to have a very rich coffee farm in Armenia, a coffee city of Colombia. Ten years ago, the guerrilla group forced him to leave his land and his cattle, so they could set up a drug laboratory. Last year, he turned 98 years old. He always talks all about everything he left behind. He feels nostalgia and sadness. He was a very hard worker all his life, and suddenly he couldn’t work on his land anymore. He was lost. In his heart he always keeps the hope of living there again, the only place he can call home.

The ELN, also had an economic impact in my family. I belong to a trader family. Some members of my family work trading fruits and vegetables and others trade with cattle. The guerrilla group used to charge a fee to farmers in order to protect them; if people resisted to pay, they would kill their cattle, burn their farms, or in the worse case, kill them. Basically, they wanted to protect people against the same guerrillas. It can be very confusing to understand, but basically the rule was “if you give me money, you are safe”. Sometimes the fees were so expensive that most of the businesses worked to pay those fees. Consequently, some members of my family lost their businesses.

Finally, the ELN had an impact in the way my family lived, spent time and took vacation. They were the owners of the roads in Colombia. My cousins and I used to spend every vacation on our farm, climbing trees, helping grandpa to select the coffee, giving food to the animals, chasing squirrels, drinking fresh milk every morning and taking showers in the river. We were there in complete happiness and freedom. When the guerrilla group appeared in that region we weren’t able to travel there anymore. We took pains to give up our vacation. We were trapped in a cage. We were forced to spend every vacation in the city. People weren’t able to travel by car anymore because of the risk of being kidnapped or killed. In fact, when I was nineteen years old, my best friend was killed by the guerrilla group. He and his uncle were traveling by car from one city to another when suddenly, they saw the guerrillas. The guerillas asked them to stop, but they didn’t. They knew they would be kidnapped. Subsequently, the guerilla started shooting at them; thus, my friend died at the age of seventeen. After that, his family decided to move to United States, and they have been living here ever since.

Although the ELN is still part of my country, in Colombia the situation is quite different now. We have a strong president named Alvaro Uribe Velez. He took the power in a moment when the guerrilla group was the king of Colombia. The ELN was the owner of towns in Colombia. The Colombian army could never enter on those places; thus, they became the most dangerous places of the country. The president returned the sovereignty of our country to the people above every place of Colombia. In addition, he is motivating guerrilla members to leave that life and go back home. Also, he is working on programs to help them to adjust to a new civil life. Colombian citizens are trying to keep him in the power since he has been the only one who returned the faith to our country. Now we can travel everywhere, other countries are investing in Colombia, more people are traveling to our country, and this year for the first time, my grandfather was able to go back to the place he loves the most, his home.