I am Rodrigo me his official mine of the
Colombian Air Force
I was born and grew up in Santander de Quilichao
municipality located north of
department of cauca department that
has suffered the ravages of violence
comes from a simple family
studious and hardworking like few
children in this country
I learned to swim alone in a river and
ride a bicycle borrowed by a neighbor
however violence also
I would arrive at the doors of my family
at the end of the 19th century the north of
Cauca department was still
object the illegal slave trade
Between Colombia and Peru
during that period of violence the
fratricidal war between liberals and
conservatives
my grandfather to leave behind his wife and
his daughters fleeing for his life and
ending in the 1980s the estate of
my grandmother located in Caloto would be
invaded by the guerrillas
with all this enter the force
Colombian air and I’m going to a desire
Uncontrollable want to help
progress of my country I imagined
knowing not only new people
but the cultures of this country and the
most recondite places and maybe what
I was doing it so that it will not hurt me so much
fact of having to leave my family in
special to my mom whom I told
bold bold
I go studied four years and came back
do not worry about it but are they
telling lies to my mom and not what
I knew
only with time did I realize that
when one decides to make the race
official
the Colombian air force never
He returned home unless it is
I visited 10 years ago I was a crew member
of a tracking plane and
recognition with four companions
more would give us the order than in itself
it was tragic
we have to go find a helicopter
of the Colombian air force that
had injured in the vicinity of
Department of Caquetá aboard the
aircraft there was a friend and companion
my own
luis enrique guzmán aki the can
affectionately the weevil we left grandfather
and we landed at the base of three
corners in this same department a
voice message that I remember as if
out today I would report the death of my
brother had to leave on the fly
again and after four hours and
Search is rich but we can find it
they would confirm that all the
crew had already died the pain
it was double
months later the call would be very
similar to the previous
my disconsolate sister was trying
organize your words my other brother
I had died
I could not believe it, my heart was
undone last night very long faith
a lola aneurysm allowed me to see my
brother goodbye to her three children
his wife or our mother
and there were my two brothers full
of dreams of many dreams of the future
one was a lawyer and the other was a plane
chemist and those dreams only
they were in our memory
they will ask why I tell them is
story because it was this way so
painful that I learned that if we have
wishes and future projects there are
start working for them you no longer have
to start working because these
projects to be present will be
reals become concrete during their
days of pain that if you take a
decision to throw myself at the same time number
unknown applying to the scholarship
fulbright was totally convinced
that he was not going to be accepted
I thought I did not have the intelligence
enough to fight for these scholarships
that these scholarships were only
designed for a type of people
within this society and that in English
I loose English learned not in
bilingual schools but in many
institutes or with recognized one that
another acquaintance would not allow me to fight
He said as an equal for this scholarship
look I waited I knew I won a scholarship
a master’s degree in studies
international applied conflicts
and the cooperation that partly
would help to form a group of
military and police that would go to the
Havana Cuba to help change the
history of peace processes in this
country and have been part of this
technical subcommittee for the purpose of
conflict
it was not easy at the beginning I imagined
be sitting with the guerrillas of
the FARC a guerrilla that hurt so much
has done to the country and so old and the
I really did not see it as if it were a
honor for me was just the opposite was
dishonor
also some fellow friends
subaltern superiors did not see how
traitors but that was not all the time
so gr
for this opportunity and advocating for
peace was that I could put into practice
my knowledge learned in states
joined on August 21 , 2014 on board
of an airplane fokker 28 manufacture
Dutch at the service of force
Colombian air force would strike them a group
of the military and police in the direction of
habana cuba was a very group
heterogeneous they had experts in
intelligence in political operations
international lawyers we would travel
to start what was called the
technical subcommittee for the purpose of
conflict that would be charged only
design a ceasefire model and
abandonment of the weapons of the ffaa
I must be honest the presentation in
society before the members with the
potential josh of the government and the
farc I had totally nervous to
one of the military force does not teach it
how to take on these kinds of challenges about
everything if they had a political tinge in
one thing is to be in front of a
ordinary citizen and another very
different to be in front of one of the
most feared and bloodthirsty guerrillas
in the eastern plains at the time
as romañá famous and sadly
famous for the miraculous catches that
were the random kidnappings in the
roads of colombia and when one looks
a guerrilla in the conditions that
It touched us in Havana Cuba
that feeling of duty so ingrained
within the military it was put in
doubt and all the preparation that
we had forgotten
I did not know where to put my eyes if the
look front to front
they wanted me to be warlike and if I did not
toward
well, we were giving skill
we also came with skepticism of
the partners that without any
Participation reference
military active in peace processes
they doubted our city capabilities
of our role
for so long that the forces
military has fought with armed groups
illegal outside the law
never but he had never explained
that this could end up on a table
conversations
that one does not learn the schools of
training far in the war
then why would we believe that
our colleagues would understand that
change of role
that paradigm shift if even
they had not explained
animosity of them was stone
natural and retirees
Well, not even in Havana
the fight was against a group of
guerrillas that he generated and still
generates a lot of hatred in some sectors of
the population and that’s where he was born
my first reflection because if the
military and police
we had been in this conflict
armed so long defending the
civil population
even offering his own life was
just natural we were in the
political resolution of them
because participation is fundamental
of the military there at the high level
where were those theories that speak
only six poles designed by a
famous academic expert in
armed conflicts called stephen
steadman for esteban the spoilers or
saboteurs were people or groups of
people who could put at risk
the negotiation processes and or your
implementation for Mr. Stern and
his disciples imagine that a group
there is active military part of the
negotiation teams in the processes
of peace and were successful would be almost
impossible
the first question was part of the
doctoral research
after being witnesses of the events of the
Success of the events in Havana Cuba
and comparing this same role played
by the other military policemen in the
havana
in other peace processes where
the military participated as the savior
burma guatemala among others
we would realize that the military
they were not such saboteurs
on the contrary they were people who speak a
language very similar to that of the counterpart
they lacked diplomacy
I did things very face to face and
instantly and apart from that they were people
knowing the land that handles the
guerrilla
at the beginning the negotiating members of
the FARC came to us and told us that
You can do it with us
prevented very reluctant we take it as
if they were strategy of them to
approaching his bed and away from
our natural leaders who were the
political people only happened
with us there were other processes
of peace where the military participated
between them with the fmln
the front farabundo martí for the
Salvadoran revival liberation
General Mauricio Vargas said to him
general in charge of leading a group of
military very similar to ours
he was called general if he had not
been for being the military
we had already risen from
the table and already when we were in the
tables returned the guesses and we
we ask why we have to
sit down with these guerrillas if they are
the uncivilized
well it was very difficult with military
we knew everything or almost all of them and not
we wanted to get involved personally
with the guerrilla but if we want to be
successful
we were aware that we must fight
against our own demons against
our own paradigms then the
our success would be the sixth in the country
and we were aware that not only
we are working with streams
we work with people with Colombians
in this way he reacts he got
again to test every time
we went to the recesses and we have a lot
hungry
it gives us a lot of set
we do not want to meet with
them in the kitchen is that we did like
strategy we put up with hunger but I
I want to tell you that strategy is not
It worked well after spending
intellectual that we had in each of
these meetings because we do not
we could wait for the guerrillas to
food all our food that
we ended up doing we ended up satisfying
hunger and thirst in the same place with
them and conversing talking with
them and we think to empathize as
people
then the military and police never
we were the stone in the shoe in this
peace process
we are more and we have been its guarantors
of the present and the future
we hope that beyond the
decision makers see us as
useful people that we can help
solve armed conflicts in
other hemispheres two years and a few months
Then we would give the country a
ceasefire model and abandonment of
the arms of the farc have believed that
military and police would sit in
a table with the farc was impossible in
special for a person like me who
comes from the departments that have most
suffered violence
the massacres of indigenous people the
forced displacement the population
afro the confluence of armed groups
illegals
today we can dream in part thanks to
work of many people without a name
last name and without uniform that left
back their families to look for something
uncertain the department of cauca
I was so stigmatized even at
inside of the military forces and the
national police that nobody wanted to be
moved to what they called cauca
attend a small afghanistan inside
from Colombia
but thanks to this process we can
again the caucanos think remember
that pride our homeland girl
enjoy the rivers in peace of the river
cauca river patía like I did not do it
I enjoyed it in war and they take away the
future to be able to exploit those benefits that
has this department as green as
its fauna and flora
these negotiations not only
they showed that this peace process was
possible but also that the attempts
failed the past would be solved
but also that military and police
we have other roles within that
society beyond that cast bullet that
we are people prepared with vision of
country that we are a new generation
he learned what we should talk
teach the training schools
we learned in practice that
internal armed conflicts
nowadays they can finish a table of
conversations in a peace process and
that the world can learn from others
the success of our participation
shows that military and police
we have other potentials that
They can cultivate that they can teach us
to negotiate and not only to fight
flee and not only to defend to debate
and not just obey
thank you very much
the letters
[Music]
i
”
Be First to Comment