From: "Stasi" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [Peoples War] Colombia: Women In The FARC Guerrilla 18 December 2001 Women in the FARC Guerrilla ===================== -by Arturo Alape They are guerrilla commanders. Rubiela's face reveals deep traces of the indigenous. She is dynamic, very strong. Sonia looks fragile, and her face is hard and stern. She immediately expressed distance, distrust. Later on she became less complicated and loosed her words; at the end she smiled. We talked of the critical moments of life's decisions - the ones that define everything and turn accumulated life experience around. I asked them why they joined the guerrilla. Rubiela had never seen the guerrilla. She explained: "One day I saw a group of guerrilleros; they told us not to be afraid, that they were just regular people, very simple people. What attracted me the most about them was that they knew really good revolutionary songs. So I said: 'I'm going to join the guerrilla.' That was about 14 years ago. I'm from Caquet�. My parents are from Palmira, Valle. Sonia had heard of or seen the guerrilla on TV; they awoke a certain interest in her. She lost herself in her memories: "I went to meetings they had, and then I studied why there was a need to join the guerrilla, because of how women are exploited in Colombia, the need for rights we women have coming to us..." Rubiela joined the guerrilla when she was 17 years old. She confessed that at that age she had never been out of her house. She was quiet, "without much freedom... in the guerrilla you start to change your behavior, so it's not hard to adapt... at the beginning you miss your family, you think about it constantly. Then you start to create the idea that no one has made you come and you made your own decision and so you have to adapt. It's not a trick, no one tricked you in to coming; it was you, so you come and keep up the struggle..." For Sonia, joining the guerrilla was an abrupt change. "It's very different as a civilian when you are free: you go wherever you want, you come back when you want, you ask your parents for permission. Here everything is different, even going to the bathroom or any other place - you have to ask permission for everything. There is an internal order that must be followed and it's for everyone, you start to butt heads, you know? Because you can't go wherever you want when you want and come back when you want, no, you have limited time and you have to follow the rules. From the time you join they explain these norms to you and if you promise to follow the norms and statutes that guide it, then you have to do it..." Sonia explains that through studying and the knowledge she is acquiring in the guerrilla, her "... consciousness is increased and you start to have your own confidence in the fact that you can follow the rules. But it always takes time. Another thing: you also have to leave your family, everything you have, so it's hard to get used to that. After that you acquire certain knowledge, so family is secondary in the guerrilla, you know what I mean? Family becomes secondary and the movement is primary..." I asked her to explain this radical change with the family: "because here you have to carry out your tasks, first you have to fulfill the missions they assign to you, then come your family commitments. You can't say, every now and then, well, give me a pass so I can go home and see my mam�, you can't. When conditions allow or require it, you request permission, and if you have earned it for good behavior, then they grant it." Sonia has been in the guerrilla for 11 years - "going on 12," she clarified. I asked: "Sonia, as a woman what was your experience when you joined the guerrilla, in the midst of a world that, I suppose, is also very machista, with so many guerrilleros. What change is there?" "It's just that you encounter something different. What you say about machismo doesn't exist here in the guerrilla, we are all equal, men and women have the same rights and we all treat each other like brothers and sisters in arms..." Sonia explained machismo in civilian life: "You have to take orders and do what they tell you to do, if you get married then you have to stay home, the man runs the house. You understand? Here no. Here we all work for everyone..." I insisted that in the guerrilla they also take orders: "We do take some orders, but for our ideas and the cause we have committed ourselves to, for the fight we are waging..." Do you feel like a fulfilled woman in the guerrilla? "I do because you have what you need, they give you what you want, you have your rights. If you want to have a compa�ero, you get one, then in that sense you feel fulfilled. Plus, you don't have to take orders from your compa�ero. In the guerrilla love is secondary, the struggle is primary; first you have your orders to obey, the material you have to study and studying itself, to train yourself and be able to aspire to something..." So you think that the woman in the guerrilla is a very free being? Rubiela answered: "She is free in the sense that Sonia explained - if we get a compa�ero we are not going to be subject to him or to what he wants, like maybe he'd want us to wash his clothes. We might do it, but only if we want, it's not an obligation..." In the guerrilla Sonia is "...free to study, to educate myself in the field that I want, politically and militarily. We are free within the disciplinary structure of the guerrilla...." Sonia explained she is educated in the politico-military area. When you are the leader what is your role? What do you do as a leader? "Well, when you are the leader you are an official of service. You have to organize anything that has to do with the unit's daily routine. And if you are a squadron commander, you are in charge of the squadron - What do the people need? What has to be done?..." Would you like to be a woman who climbs the military ladder? Rubiela explained: "When I joined there was still machismo; they didn't want a woman to lead them because they were men. Things are changing now for women..." I asked Sonia: What has your experience been? What have you learned? What do you like about the guerrilla outside of all the seriousness? (They both laughed). Sonia released some of the tension she felt at first: "In the guerrilla it's important for us to learn. There is an article in the regulations that says that guerrilleros need to be well-rounded people. Well-rounded means knowing a little about everything, about all the arts needed in the guerrilla. So I have been in the infirmery and did well; I had a class in explosives and have set three or four mines, not more; and the same goes for other activities. I like the military part of it too, and I have participated in actions and done well..." Sonia is part of the high command of Front 14. I asked her about her concept of a leader. She went into detail: "the concept of commanding troops has to include authority, the gift of leadership so you can guide your people; you have to know how to lead - you have to know who you are leading, and how to lead them, because the orders you give them must be well-received, the ones who are going to obey them must receive them with satisfaction. You have to know the troop's mood. We don't all have the same mood, or the same character; some like to be led one way, some like to be spoken to harshly. A commander must prepare herself, she has to keep herself updated on all areas - on the national political situation, and the international situation, so she can locate the troop. Because a commander who has no knowledge then has no authority for leadership, nor can she control her troop..." I asked Sonia to explain how she manages this leadership authority during military action. An impassioned spark flickers in her eyes: "on the front lines with your unit, making a front, organizing it - deciding what flank you have to cover, how you should organize your troops, how you are going to advance on the enemy, how you are going to take a particular post, or that particular flank you have to cover. This is how you get this leadership authority. If a commander sends her troops into action and she stays behind, then she loses leadership authority and has nothing to yell at the troops about..." Sonia talks about her leadership experience during the exercises in El Billar: "we didn't have any military intelligence, we only knew the enemy was in a certain place. I started to move my people, to circle the area the army was in. Our troops advanced until we surrounded the army. There were about 250, in the end we didn't even know. We annihilated the Third Mobil Unit, very few got away. It was a day and night-time action; it lasted 17 hours. It started at 4 PM and ended the next day around 2 PM..." Rubiela talks about the fear you face in a military action. "You always feel fear, because they didn't make pants for fear. But you are not alone, you are with your other compa�eros and they encourage you a lot..." I asked Sonia about death: "I don't really have an opinion. It would be hard to have an opinion about this because you don't know how death is going to take you..." And when death comes to someone else because of you, what do you think? "I think it would be a terrible failure if a compa�ero died because of someone else..." And what if it's the enemy? "If we lower our guard, they'll kill us, you know what I mean? If they aren't careful, we kill them. Even though we know we are fighting against our own people. That's why we prefer them to surrender instead of killing them..." In the end both confided what they would do if the war is resolved peacefully. Rubiela would like to continue her military career. Sonia would like to return civilian life and become a politician to govern a municipality or a department. They hug as they leave, then turn around and are lost in their lean-tos. _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
