"For a long time I hated men. I could not have them around, I resented his smell, his voice, his presence. I hid from them. "
Victoria (*), to his 18 years, was a girl. Before that age had no boyfriend, she did not leave the farm of his parents where he lived with his 15 brothers, and know the world that existed beyond Las Mercedes, the village of Sardinata where this story of pain.
Dedicated to the offices of the house, the cultivation of coffee and cocoa, and herding cattle, the life of Victoria passed relatively normally.
The only thing that occasionally altered the lives of his family was present for two or three days, ELN guerrillas camped in the vicinity of the farm from his parents.
"They came and settled along the fence that surrounded the property of my parents. Never they got to our house. In that area they are very jealous with the territory. My house was always the ELN, but in front, in the neighboring mountain, were 'hairy' (FARC guerrillas), "Victoria said.
Ending 2002, Mercedes experienced a period of violence that would change the history of this woman.
In November of that year in the rural area of this district several clashes between government forces and guerrillas still are present in this area and, then, threatened to be, once again, the town is presented.
"The helicopters overflying intensified in those days and at night it was impossible to sleep by the sound of the bullets that crossed the two sides. He cornered the guerrillas sought refuge at the top of the mountain, passing through my house one of those nights, "he added.
That night, as the story of Victoria, ELN guerrillas took several wounded and for the first time in its history, entered the home of his parents violently, breaking everything.
"They wanted to take four of my older brothers, three men and a woman. My dad knelt, cried and begged them not to take any of his sons, who will take everything except my brothers. "
Twelve mules, several chickens and part of the market that his father stored in a cellar of the house, went to the hands of the guerrillas. In the dark of night and under the incessant noise of the helicopters, the rebels vanished. However, when they thought it was all over, came the worst.
"Three days later they returned to the farm. They camped where they always did. They did not talk to my dad and asked nothing. At night, when one of my sisters and I would wash the dinner dishes, three of them crossed the fence and threw us over, we covered his mouth and took us up the mountain, a distance in which our cries alerted not or my family or others guerrillas. "
Completely dominated the three ELN sexually abused and her sister Victoria. Both were virgins. They were dragged along the ground, cutting the body with the stones of the road, they took them by the neck until almost suffocating and beaten, to the point that Victoria still has in his leg the scar was kicked one the guerrillas struck him.
With innocence destroyed, the three men were forced to go to Las Mercedes and not go home anymore. Otherwise, they would infringe his family.
"They wanted to make them believe my parents that we had gone up with them voluntarily, or worse, that had left".
That night, the two sisters took a car to anyone who took the Cucuta-Ocaña road and there, even without knowing how, got into another vehicle, 18 hours later, the he left in Bogota.
"In the capital we were freezing to death. I did not even know Sardinata and was now in a big city. There a lady who saw us in that situation, offered help and ended up working as domestic servants ".
No news of his family, the sisters began to notice how their bellies grew. Both were pregnant.
"My sister, being in the eighth month of pregnancy was complicated and ended up sticking out all the dead baby. She became very ill, he went berserk. I had no choice but to return with her to Cucuta. Here we establish contact with my family, by then, he had already left the building.
The guerrillas, the refusal of my father let my brothers will take and for having sent to Cucuta provided they do not recruit, was threatened and forced to leave home. Some went to Sardinata, others came over here (Cucuta), some more to San Gil and well, we all watered by several parts of the country. "