In Colombia, Old Foes Are Now New Neighbors
LA PAZ, Colombia — The town’s name is Spanish for “peace.” The days to come will test how accurate that is.
After a half- century of war, Colombia’s rebels are disarming, preparing to enter civilian life under the peace accord signed last year. In this mountain town, a new settlement of former fighters, 80 strong and growing, is taking shape.
“We’ve spent 52 years in hammocks,” said the fighters’ commander, who still uses his nom de guerre, Aldemar Altamiranda. “It’s time we moved into tiny houses.”
Across the country, an estimated 7,000 rebels with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, will hand their guns to United Nations monitors this year.
The settlement in La Paz, called Tierra Grata, is the vanguard of the effort to carry out Colombia’s peace accord. The deal was struck down by a popular vote late last year, only to be forced through Congress by President Juan Manuel Santos.
La Paz itself demonstrates the country’s l i ngering divisions: While the referendum was supported here, 4 in 10 residents voted to strike down the deal. Some still harbor bitter memories of the war and of an enemy who once preyed upon them but has become a neighbor.
The only armed people in the ranch- sized settlement are the rebels. The perimeter is guarded by the Colombian military, which is now protecting the guerrillas.
Now without a war, the rebels spend the days contemplating what life they will choose next.
“Many look at how politics is done here, with a tie and a nice car and all the money and they say: ‘ We can’t do that, we don’t want to,’ ” said Yimmy Ríos, 47, a rebel intelligence agent at the settlement.
The FARC and its paramilitary enemies ravaged La Paz for years. In 1997, the mayor was shot dead, one of countless killings residents attribute to the guerrillas.
That troubled history was in mind last August for Alcides Daza Quintero, the 27-year- old deputy mayor, when the government announced FARC had chosen La Paz as one of the zones they would settle.
“It was like a blow,” Mr. Quintero said, explaining neither side consulted the town. “To receive a group from the margins of the law like this. We were hit so hard by them.”
In October, hundreds gathered in a municipal park to discuss the deal. Victims told of their loved ones who were killed during the war. Mr. Altamiranda gave a public apology for the rebels’ crimes.
In the camp, the fighters still wake at 4:30 a.m., though to take classes on the peace deal, rather than to march.
Most of the fighters interviewed said they planned to follow whatever political incarnation FARC takes.
“There was no way out where I was from,” said Yackeline, 32, a fighter who ran away to a rebel camp when she was 13 because she says it was the only place that she could receive an education.
She said she was still adjusting to her new life.
“We wake up on mattresses tired, like we haven’t slept,” she said. “We are just not used to them.”