Culture

Festival in Bogota gathers enterprising former guerrillas, Colombia conflict victims

Bogota, Sep 22 (EFE).- Victims of Colombia’s armed conflict and former FARC guerrillas took to the central Plaza de Bolívar in Bogotá on Wednesday armed with beer and food, clothing and handicrafts to sell, almost five years after the signing of the peace agreement.Blanca Nubia Díaz, one of the 70 entrepreneurs participating in the first Emprende Paz (Embark on Peace) Festival, seeks justice for her daughter Irina del Carmen Villero Díaz, who she says was raped and murdered by paramilitaries in May 2001 in a rural area in the municipality of Albania, in the Caribbean department of La Guajira.Díaz, who has lived in Bogotá for 20 years, arrived at the festival to sell handmade bags and bracelets that she embroiders herself. (Camera: JUAN DIEGO LÓPEZ). SHOT LIST: THE EMPRENDE PAZ FESTIVAL IN THE PLAZA DE BOLIVAR IN BOGOTA, COLOMBIA. SOUND BITES: GLADYS ACEVEDO, MOTHER OF A SOLDIER WHO WAS KILLED DURING THE ARMED CONFLIC (IN SPANISH).TRANSLATION: 1. The project was born as a result of the fact that we did not have psychosocial support because the public force does not have a clear route on how to [support] the mothers.2. We make military dolls with the uniforms that our children have left us. This has memory and as long as we are alive, the memory of our children will continue to live, and we will make visible the problems that exist with the mothers of the murdered professional soldiers.