The Dispossessed. Aviva Chomsky

      

      © 2001, 2005 Alfredo Molano Bravo

      Translation © 2005 Daniel Bland

      Foreword © 2005 Aviva Chomsky

      Introduction © 2005 Lance Selfa

      Appendix © 2005 Mabel González Bustelo

      Originally published as Desterrados: crónicas del desarraigo by El Áncora Editores, Colombia, 2001

      This edition published in 2005 by Haymarket Books

      P.O.Box 160185, Chicago, IL 60618, USA

       www.haymarketbooks.org

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data:

      Molano, Alfredo.

      [Desterrados. English]

      The dispossessed: chronicles of the desterrados of Colombia / Alfredo Molano.

      p. cm.

      Includes bibliographical references.

      ISBN: 978-1-608463-15-2

      1. Refugees--Colombia--Case studies. 2. Forced migration--Colombia--Case studies. 3. Refugee children--Colombia--Case studies. 4. Assassination--Colombia--Case studies. 5. Subversive activities--Colombia--Case studies. 6. Paramilitary forces--Colombia--Case studies. 7. Social conflict--Colombia--Case studies. I. Title.

      HV640.5.C7M6513 2005

      986.106′35--dc22

      Cover design by Ragina Johnson

      Interior design and production by Ragina Johnson and David Whitehouse

      10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

       A Mónica Restrepo,

       cuya risa derrota la muerte.

       To Mónica Restrepo, whose

       laugh triumphs over death.

       Buenos días, memoria terca,

       buenos días, sangre seca,

       buenos días, hueso acostado.

       buenos días, aire sin mano.

       (Pensar en hacer burbujas

       con el corazón ahogándose).

       Jaime Sabines

      Table of Contents

List of Illustrations

Map of Colombia

Foreword by Aviva Chomsky

Introduction by Lance Selfa

The Dispossessed

1 From Exile

2 The Defeat

       3 Ángela

       4 Silences

       5 The Turkish Boat

       6 The Garden

       7 Osiris

       8 Nubia, La Catira

      Appendix: “Desterrados: Forced Displacement in Colombia” by Mabel González Bustelo

      Glossary

      Resources on Colombia on the World Wide Web

      Contributors

       Illustrations

       Cover photo

      Oneida Bocanegra Pulido is eight years old. She was displaced from La Union Peneya, Caquetá. Today, she lives in Florencia, Caquetá, Colombia. Photograph courtesy Camilo George.

       From Exile

      AUC paramilitaries in a jungle camp in southern Colombia, near the town of El Placer, Putamayo, in 2001. Photograph courtesy Daniel Bland.

       The Defeat

      This is Oneida (pictured on the cover), her cousin Margarita, and her grand mother. The three lived together in Union Peneya, in the Caquetá region. On January 4, 2004, with the advance of the army during Operation Patriot, the FARC ordered the 1,500 townspeople to leave the area under penalty of death. Because Margarita was sick with a skin infection, the family could only hide under their beds while the guerrillas searched house to house. When the town was abandoned, the family could leave, but they had neither food nor medicine. The army evacuated the entire family at the end of January to Florencia, Caquetá. Photograph courtesy Camilo George.

       Ángela

      Survivors of the massacre at El Salado, a town of 4,500 inhabitants in the Montes de Maria area. On February 16, 2000, the town experienced one of the most horrific slaughters perpetrated by the paramilitaries who accused the townspeople of aiding the guerrillas. Over three days, 600 paramilitary fighters rounded up all the townspeople that they could take out of the jungle—about 500 people. For four days and nights, the captives were tortured, abused, and killed. One young woman who was gang-raped, had a piece of cactus forced down her throat, causing her to suffocate on her own blood. In the end, the paramilitaries painted anti-guerrilla slogans on houses with the blood of the victims. Photograph courtesy Camilo George.

       Silences

      U.S military-trained and -equipped Colombian army special antinarcotics commandos on patrol deep in the jungles of Colombia in search of cocaine processing laboratories. Photograph courtesy Steven Salisbury/Red Dot/Zuma Press.

       The Turkish Boat

      Thirteen-year-old Jhonn Nilson lives in the poor neighborhoods of San Jacinto, in Córdoba, where many survivors of the massacres in the Montes de Maria area fled. He looks through trash for nylon sacks so that his grandmother can make backpacks from their threads. They trade the backpacks for food at the San Jacinto market. Photograph courtesy Camilo George.

       The Garden

      Students at a school created by the residents of the La Ceiba neighborhood, in Carmen de Bolivar. This school was founded by a group of neighborhood residents to provide for the increasing number of displaced people that continue to arrive in the neighborhood from the conflict zones of Sucre, Cordoba, and Bolivar. This school has 300 students, but no running water. It is housed in two rooms and the hallway of a house. The students have neither textbooks nor school supplies. The usual breakfast in this school is a soft drink. Photograph courtesy Camilo George.

       Osiris

      Another survivor of the February 2000 El Salado massacre. Photograph courtesy Camilo George.

       Nubia, La Catira

      A relocated girl on a street in Bogotá. Her sign says: “I would like to study; my mother is unemployed; thank you for your help,” as she asks drivers for money. Photograph courtesy Rodrigo Arangua/AFP.