Interview with Alexandra, Viviana and Maritza
Interview with Alexandra, Viviana and Maritza
We publish here an interview with three women guerrillas and members of the FARC-EP Peace Delegation, Alexandra Nariño, Viviana Hernández and Maritza Sánchez.
The interview was first published in the FARC-EP Peace Delegation webpage and can be found at:
What is the position of the FARC-EP on the issue of motherhood and to recent allegations that "the FARC force their female guerrilla combatants to abort?”
Maritza: The position of the FARC-EP on pregnancies in female fighters has been changing, as every time more and more women are joining the guerrilla. In war it is not possible to raise children for various reasons: we cannot bring children into this world if we don´t have time to bring them up. We are working for a more just society for men and women, and we have no time or way to do it. This is part of the sacrifice we must make. If we leave our children with families or friends, the Colombian military and security agencies persecute them. There are several cases where this has happened, the children of guerrilla fighters are killed or used to find their parents, as the case of the daughter of Lucero and Simón Trinidad to take a concrete example.
Abortion has been one of the measures we had to adopt, (reaffirmed in the 8th and 9th National Guerrilla Conferences); this requires a permanent educational job to create awareness among the guerrilla fighters -men and women- to use contraceptive methods, avoid pregnancy and not have to resort to abortions. It is obvious that in a mixed group of people there exists intercourse and there are always risks of pregnancy, each case is reviewed by the commanders to establish what to do: what was the reason, disregard, recalcitrance or accident… whatever the case may be, the commander should make a decision. When people join the guerrilla, besides the political and military issues and the commitment made with the organization, they receive an explanation about the fact that in the FARC-EP you cannot have children and that, in case of pregnancy, one of the measures is abortion. Then you can´t come up with the story that we were obliged. Of course, there are women that afterwards do want to keep the baby and then things get more complicated, but 99% of the cases are being solved without any problems, we know it´s a necessity. Besides, don’t forget that the enemy uses the pregnancies in infiltrated women, as they use women to deliberately transfer sexually transmitted diseases, to destroy the lives of the guerrilla fighters. If you knew everything the military intelligence tries to do!
How would you like the role of women in society to be?
Viviana: In the FARC-EP women work and fight under conditions which are quite different from those of the Colombian society. Our role as guerrilla fighters shows the seed of the new model that should prevail in a future society. We demand special attention for the rights that women should have as part of this society. We insist that the role of women and men must be aligned; women have to be recognized. In a future society woman have to play the role they deserve in the history of humanity. Women should be able to define their own destiny and not to remain slaves of ignorance and discrimination. They have to be constructors, on an equal basis and hand in hand with men.
Different media have said that women are slaves of the guerrilla commanders, giving them a pejorative treatment. What do you say about that?
Alexandra: It is important to analyze which types of media transmit such strong statements, why they do it and what sources of information they use. First, don’t forget that in Colombia the most influential media are in the hands of the ruling class, and that class has a primary interest: the defense of their power, their privileges. We are a threat to that power, therefore, they try to crush us, using all forms of struggle; one of them is the ideological struggle through propaganda campaigns for example. Second, we see that in the vast majority of cases they use deserted guerrilla fighters, manipulated by the army, to give false testimonies.
There is a big difference between saying that the guerrillas there exist manifestations of sexism, that there may exist commanders (or fighters), who have not yet reached a level of awareness that helps them to better understand the role of women within the guerrilla, to saying that we are slaves or that we are being denigrated. Honestly I think the treatment of women in Colombian society is many times worse than in the guerrilla; Women in the FARC-EP don´t depend financially on their partner, but on the organization. That makes a big difference. Furthermore, the legal framework of the FARC is favorable to women; for example, rape is a crime and may lead to court-martial and even to the maximum penalty. That is, the only thing I have to do as a guerrilla fighter whenever I feel my rights are being violated, is to step forward in the military review in the afternoon, which is done every 24 hours, and for example say: John hit me last night. Then the command of my unit will take disciplinary measures in this regard. Or, if I want the fact to be analyzed more carefully, I report it in my political cell meeting, which takes place every 15 days, so that people can give their opinion about or criticize John and take a joint decision as a political cell, we could politically punish him, telling him to do a self-critics for example, something constructive.
* FARC-EP Peace Delegation (webpage: FARC-EP Peace Delegation)
