Jesús Nevaldo Perreia Perreia from the Farmers Association Quibdó
Philipp Lichterbeck / Adveniat
When Jesús Perreia visits the Memorial Chapel for Victims of Violence in Quibdó, two photos on the wall cause him special pain. On one is his brother, who was murdered 15 years ago. On the other, one of his sons, whom he caught 13 years ago. The image of another son is missing - he disappeared without a trace five years ago.
"We do not know who kidnapped him, there are so many different criminal groups here in the department of Chocó that we can not say it," Perreia says.
His murdered brother had been a boatman. "He was forced by both the Farc and the paramilitaries to work for her, he could not refuse, and if he did as they asked, he ran the risk of being attacked from the other side."
So many people were killed because of this situation or fled their home villages. "Whole river regions are now depopulated, because the fear is so great." In the Chocó district, mine activity is controlled by armed groups, including gold mining. This is practiced illegally, although the law forbids it. "Many live on it, that produces violence and conflict," says Perreia. "If the state organized and controlled mining properly, we would not have a problem of violence."
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Violence in Colombia: "The old fear returns"Although the territory belongs to the Afro-Colombians and Indigenous people. "But we are not involved in social processes, we have little access to education or health care - we have no rights whatsoever."
Despite great poverty Perreia tried to give his children an education. "My son was murdered by the Farc on October 5, 2005. He needed 400,000 pesos, about one hundred euros, to enroll at the University of Quibdó, and he made his way to our village to earn wood for his money He was murdered because the Farc has a general suspicion that all the young people who study in the city are automatically spies of the paramilitaries. "
Philipp Lichterbeck / Adveniat
Photos of murdered in the Memorial Chapel of Quibdó
Perreia struggles hard with the loss of the two sons. But he has no desire for revenge. "I know the Farc commander who gave the order to murder my son, I know that the boys who accused him of being a collaborator came from near my village, but I do not want that know exactly, it would burden me too much. "
It is not easy to forgive when someone kills their own child. "But we can only push the peace process if we do not have feelings of hatred, we have to make sure that those still alive do not suffer the same fate."
Santiago *, guerrilla informer from the Bojayá region
Annette Langer / DER SPIEGEL
Recruitment Victims Santiago *
In 2008, I was forced by members of the left-wing Farc guerrilla to work for them. I should show them a little way to the Pacific. For two days we were on the road, then a Farc commander stepped on a mine and was seriously injured. They said that I had to find another way to the river Opogado. I also did that.
Shortly thereafter, I met a woman and moved to another village. In 2016, the National Liberation Army (ELN), also a guerrilla, came to this community. One of the former Farc commanders had landed in the meantime and has recognized me. "You're a good man," he said, giving me a new fight name and adding me to the list of fighters.
I did not want that, but I was afraid to fight back. I then had to work as an informant for the commander. I should explore the movements of the opposing troops. I also brought food to the ELN camp. In my community, it was getting around that I worked for the guerrillas - it did not interest anyone that I was forced to. I never liked this work.
And suddenly right-wing paramilitaries with a list came to my village and asked, "Where is Santiago *, the ELN informant?" People have not betrayed me. One secretly put me, that I am wanted. So I asked the village elders to call a meeting to protect me, but he did nothing. "Complain to the ombudsman," a friend advised me. Since I secretly drove off with a boat. For four days now I am waiting for a meeting with the Ombudsman.
I have six children, I have tuberculosis and I do not earn any money at the moment. My wife says I should never work with any guerrilla again. I went to the ELN representatives and declared that it is over. So far they leave me alone. But the paramilitaries continue to assume that I work for the ELN - for them I'm an enemy.
Macaria Allín, survivor of the massacre in Bellavista, Chocó
Philipp Lichterbeck / Adveniat
On May 2, 2002, at least 79 people died in a church in Bellavista, northwestern Colombia, when a Farc guerilla detonator exploded in a church. Macaria Allín had hid there with their two daughters and nearly 300 other seekers of protection from the fighting between Farc and paramilitaries.
"At some point I heard a strange, metallic noise and immediately called my older daughter, who was playing nearby, and then the bomb hit in. At first, I did not understand what was going on. we were both bleeding violently, unable to move, so I entrusted my younger daughter to someone and stayed with the older one in the church, lying there all night, with five other seriously injured. "
In the video: The courageous women of Chocó
At four o'clock in the morning, men came from the Farc and asked if they were "among the paramilitary whore sons." "No, we are civilians!" They would have shouted. "So they promised to send paramedics from the Red Cross, who actually came and took us by boat to the other side of the river." Nervous were their saviors: "Hurry, hell is near."
Allin's older daughter was flown out - with the only plane that ever came. "We've survived all three, but not all wounds have healed, since the old fear is here again, the old fear is back, the eternal on-the-hat-weariness is being crushed, the state claims it will protect us, but that is we just saw how state security forces got the paramilitaries from the Bojayá fighting zone out, they were in league with each other, I only got real support from the women religious and the diocese, and I did not lose my faith, even if it was At first it was difficult to enter a church again. "
* Name changed by the editor