Onverharde weg naar vrede

As teenagers, they decided to fight for FARC. Now that a peace agreement has been signed in Colombia, the children of Caldono return to their bombed village. The question is how the villagers will welcome them: with forgiveness or retaliation? Activist Farid Julicué dedicates himself to achieving reconciliation between the villagers and the former rebels.

On 23 November 2016, the Colombian government and the FARC rebel movement signed a peace agreement to bring an end to 53 years of war between the two parties. For years, the village Caldono had been the epicentre of a bloody fight. Many guerrilla fighters were born there and joined the movement at a young age. For decades, they had plagued their own village with attacks, causing many civilian casualties in the process.

Now that the peace agreement has been signed and FARC is slowly being dismantled, the fighters will have to return to their community. But who would actually want to welcome their son’s murderer? Farid Julicué is a community leader in Caldono and understands the complexity of reconciliation better than anyone. Even so, he dreams of absolute peace and dedicates himself to ensuring that his grandchildren will know peace in their future. He visits the ex-FARC warriors in a transition camp and arranges a reconciliation meeting. But the villagers still feel fear, hatred and disbelief and the road to peace is fraught with difficulties.