When The Résumé Reads:Guerrilla (1964-2016)

Ex-rebels prepare to enter the workforce in postwar Colombia.

- John Otis

There are no guns in sight at a rebel camp in Guaviare, a state in south- central Colombia. Instead, some 500 former members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, wear civilian clothes and pass the time playing soccer and volleyball, while they wait to be reintegrated into society. Several women among them—who while fighting were forced to use birth control and have abortions— are pregnant or nursing newborns. Another first: The ex- guerrillas are having to think about how they’ll earn a living now that they’ve laid down their weapons. Raul Andrés Ballesteros, 33, who dropped out of junior high to join the FARC, says he plans to study technology and become a systems engineer. Faisuri Mendoza, 29, a 10-year veteran and a member of the Cubeo Indian tribe, dreams of becoming an anthropologist.

When Colombia’s government signed a peace treaty with the FARC last fall, it meant more than an end to a 52-year conflict that left an estimated 220,000 people dead and forced more than 5 million civilians from their homes. It also meant 7,000 guerrillas would have a chance to disarm and enter the workforce. Whether Ballesteros, Mendoza, and the rest of their comrades find their bearings will go a long way toward determining the fate of Colombia’s peace process.

Recruited as teenagers, many of the rebels are illiterate peasants who possess few skills beyond firing Kalashnikovs and patching up the wounded. Should they fail in their efforts to go back to school, find work, and organize a FARC-led political party— goals the Colombian government has pledged to support—they could once again return to the bush. Since the peace treaty was signed in September, more than 300 FARC guerrillas have broken ranks to form a dissident rebel group that’s attacking army troops and shaking down business owners.