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A young man of 18 years old: a former militant
Catalina Barragán Hinestroza | 18 March 2021
A young man of 18 years old: a former militant
He came to the militia when he was 10 years old. He says that he joined in search of better living conditions and because he wanted to escape the strong hand of his parents. He emphasizes that he was not forcibly recruited, but that he joined the war by his own free will. At 10 years old... Isn´t offering a child a life where he would not have to follow the rules of his elders, and instead, could have a crucial role in the future of his country, forced recruitment? Because in the end, when one lives in misery, the offer of a different life is an abuse of power and manipulation.
He tells me that the first trainings were hard, but that he liked to be part of something as big as this. At the beginning he did not participate in the armed encounters since he was not yet fully trained. So instead, he worked as a messenger or link with the civilian population. Since that year, he was to live in the middle of the war for many years to come.
"In war nobody wins"
After 8 years of heavy warfare, after seeing things that no child or any person should ever see, he put down he weapons, with a big dream of continuing his studies, going to university to become a lawyer, and change the situation of the country in a peaceful way.
He is much more than a son of war. He is a father of hope and second chances.
It has been 5 years since I met him, and I wrote this story while we lived together. Today, I don't know what happened to him, and whenever that question comes to my mind, I try to imagine that his dreams were fulfilled, that he is close to graduating and that everything the war took from him, he reclaimed.
This is what I hope, trying to be optimistic. But if I am sincere, a big part of me doubts that this is what happened, as much as I wish it did. I have to be realistic; the agreements have not been honoured, the war has flared up, and the economic opportunities get more and more limited every day.
"The ones who like war don´t experience the pain of war"
I pray that he has not returned to the war. He does not belong to it; he is terrified of death. He wants to change the world; he wants to fall in love and have his heart broken. He wants to have children and be able to protect them in a way that he wasn’t.
Very few people like war and the ones who do are almost always those who don´t experience the pain of war. For them war is more like a strategy game.
"the casualties of war belong to everyone"
In war nobody wins. Sadly, it takes years of peace to understand this. For example, it has been almost a century since the Spanish civil war ended and it is only now that historians begin to talk about how nobody won that war, because each side suffered casualties and those who fought on both sides are really brothers, sons of the same country.
I hope that those who are waging wars today, will soon understand that we are all losing, that the casualties belong to everyone. This young man I described here could be anyone: he could be from the right or the left, the military or the guerrilla. Whichever it is, he deserves life, a good life, a life with peace, a life with love, a life that does not believe in sides but in brotherhoods.