Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Download MP3
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the country’s largest guerrilla group known as the FARC, is losing thousands of its fighters. They’re not dying…they’re giving up. Correspondent John Otis reports.
Read the Transcript
This text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.
MARCO WERMAN: South of Cuba in Columbia the military continues to pound away at leftist guerillas. But what’s even more demoralizing for the revolutionary armed forces of Columbia, the rebel group known as the FARC, is that thousands of its fighters are simply giving up. Many FARC rebels, sensing they’re losing the war against the government are turning themselves in and they’re turning over valuable information to the Columbian army. Reporter John Otis has the story.
[MUSIC]
JOHN OTIS: On Columbian armed forces radio a former guerilla sings the praises of giving up and leaving the war behind.
[MUSIC]
OTIS: My life has changed, he sings. Now I’ve got a girlfriend. I’m with my family. I give thanks to God. The song is part of an army propaganda blitz that includes radio spots, posters, and leaflets dropped over rebel infested areas. And it’s working. Since President Alvaro Uribe took office seven years ago more than 12,000 FARC fighters have demobilized. Most are green recruits who became disenchanted with life in the jungle. But about 1000 of the deserters were midlevel commanders. Perhaps the most high profile deserter is Elda Mosqeura. A one-eyed female commander better known as Karina she led a series of devastating FARC attacks. But last year Karina turned herself in and now promotes the government’s demobilization program on the radio.
KARINA: [SPEAKING SPANISH]
OTIS: For the Columbian army the desertions have produced a kind of virtuous circle. That’s because guerrilla turncoats often provide intelligence for army operations. And as the military strikes more blows against the FARC, more guerrillas lose their will to fight and turn themselves in. Colonel Cesar Guauta is operations chief for the army’s first mobile brigade in former rebel stronghold of La Macarena.
CESAR GUAUTA: [SPEAKING SPANISH]
OTIS: He says the desertions are breaking the FARC. They demoralize the remaining fighters and provide the location of rebel camps and arms cashes.
GUAUTA: [SPEAKING SPANISH]
OTIS: Guauta leads me into a tent to show off the latest rebel deserter, a 21-year-old FARC explosives expert who goes by the nom de guerre Visages. Some here are hostile towards Visages because he detonated a car bomb last year that killed two soldiers. Like many impoverished teenagers, Visages says he was drawn into the FARC by its rhetoric of Marxist revolution and social justice. He decided to quit after a FARC commander forced his pregnant rebel girlfriend to get an abortion. Visages says as the army offensive intensifies more and 6more rebels want to desert.
VISAGES: [SPEAKING SPANISH]
OTIS: Visages operated in rural towns so it was easy for him to find an army patrol and turn himself in. For rebels in the jungle deserting is far more difficult and those who are caught by the FARC are executed.
GUAUTA: [SPEAKING IN SPANISH]
OTIS: Cooks at the army base in La Macarena provide Visages with three meals a day. He also gets new clothes, cigarettes, and magazines. But the army wants something in return. After dinner an intelligence officer presses Visages for the names of FARC militia men.
OFFICER: [SPEAKING IN SPANISH]
OTIS: Visages cooperates. By the time the interview ends the army officer comes away with a list of more than 20 plainclothes FARC collaborators.
OFFICER: [SPEAKING SPANISH]
OTIS: Visages will soon be off to Bogota where a government program gives deserters temporary housing, education, and job training. But the FARC continues to recruit and press gang teenagers into its ranks. So the army is trying to win them over before the guerrillas can.
[MUSIC]
OTIS: One program sends army musicians into villages to perform and teach youngsters guitar. And back at armed forces radio the DJs have a fulltime hob saturating the airways with stories, songs, and speeches to persuade the guerrillas to give up the fight. For The World I’m John Otis, La Macarena, Columbia.
[MUSIC]
Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.
Thank you John Otis – I have been listening to The World for over ten years and this is the first time I hear a balanced and knowledge-based report on Colombia’s tremendous effort to defeat the FARC.