The devastation of Colombia's civil warIn Colombia, years of civil war and assassinations have torn

[Judi Lynn]

The devastation of Colombia's civil warIn Colombia, years of civil war and assassinations have torn families apart
Mike Power
The Guardian,
Saturday 23 April 2011

Sitting in a shack that totters on stilts in a slum overlooking Bogotá, Colombia's capital city, Gloria Torres gasps as she looks at the creased and faded photograph of her son. He is smiling slightly, dressed in his best, thumbs in pockets, his dark eyes soft.

Torres holds it to her chest, crumples, seems to shrink by half in less than a second, then remembers she has guests. She composes herself, and lays the photo carefully back in a shoebox and strokes the face, brushes down her apron and pulls her youngest daughter closer. In a gentle, determined voice, she begins to tell her family's story.

Torres will remember 7 June 2007 for the rest of her life. She can even pinpoint the hour she knew that her son, 17-year-old Aurelio, was dead. "It was 3am. I felt something, like he'd come home, come to my bedside. I awoke and spoke to him, but he wasn't there. Then a feeling, a pain came over me, which to this day I still can't shake off."

~snip~
"Later, I found out that at that very moment the army were assassinating him," she says.

More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/apr/23/colombia-farc-killed-mothers-justice

Editorials:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x944527