The earnest plea calling on Marxist guerrillas to give up the fight comes from an unlikely messenger.
The speaker is Elda Mosquera, a one-eyed female guerrilla commander, better known as Karina, who in the 1990s led a series of devastating guerrilla attacks. But last year, Karina turned herself in, and she now promotes the Colombian government’s demobilization program.
The propaganda blitz includes radio spots, posters and leaflets dropped from helicopters over rebel-infested areas. Guerrillas are told that by disarming they can begin new lives with the help of government housing, education and job-training.
Since President Alvaro Uribe was first elected in 2002, more than 12,000 members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the country’s largest guerrilla group known as the FARC, have turned themselves in.
The number includes a record 3,027 FARC rebels who demobilized last year. Most were green recruits who quickly became fed up with life in the jungle. But some, like Karina, were high-ranking commanders with years of experience.
For the Colombia army, the demobilizations have produced a kind of virtuous circle. Deserters often provide key intelligence for army operations and as the military strikes more blows against the FARC, more guerrillas lose their will to fight.
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