Interview with an Assassin
The following inter- view was conducted by photojournalist Jason P. Howe in July 2003 in southern Colombia. The interviewee, who we have named Lorena, requested that her exact location...
...But after a while I get annoyed with her and say it is my life and this is the way I am and will be...
...And turning to the only viable economic opportunity in the region---coca growing-has further drawn the rural population of southern Colombia into the conflict...
...The U.S.backed Colombian Army colluded with the paramilitaries during this offensive...
...but more my mother...
...The AUC] investigated and it came out positive that [my friends] worked for the guerrillas, so I killed them...
...It doesn't matter what the problem is...
...I am from here and if I leave the organization, [the AUC] will kill me...
...When you kill the second one, it will all be O.K...
...I feel that I like the AUC and the FARC live mainly in the jungle, although there are a lot of women on the side of the FARC...
...Yes, because in one situation they were going to kill me...
...INTERVIEW/ASSASSIN How do you kill...
...Lorena, 23, lives with her four-year-old daughter in Colombia's Amazon region...
...I was nervous, but my companions gave me a lot of support...
...Paramilitaries moved south into Lorena's region in the late 1990s, intent on seizing rebel-controlled territory-particularly valuable coca-producing areas...
...Why are you working with the AUC and not the FARC...
...Maybe I want to put it to one side, but I don't know...
...They arrived in numbers on the river...
...That was very painful...
...Then I became a friend of the commander...
...Yes...
...Whereas, when you are here [as a civilian] there is no respect...
...With everything you know now, would you do the same things...
...The group with the most money and people will be the strongest...
...There's pain...
...We have commanders, financiers and patrollers...
...What does your family say about your work...
...Do the A UC receive any information or help from the army...
...Also in 2001, there was a change in paramilitary tactics...
...Living and sleeping in the jungle away from home...
...There is lots of combat and many deaths...
...She has Lorena checks her handgun as her daughter and niec been a member of the right-wing paramilitary group, the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), for two and a half years...
...8NACIA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS 0 0 NACIA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS 8The AUC and the army are both fighting against the FARC...
...But once I left the organization I was not obligated...
...Lorena is a tragic and extreme example of how the systemic violence perpetrated by the guerrillas, the paramilitaries and the Colombian Army adversely affects Colombia's rural youth...
...Maybe I don't want to continue with this life...
...But it's your life and you're taught in the school: First you, then the others...
...Before I had an obligation to kill, I was sent to kill...
...I entered their training The coffi school...
...AUC leader Jason P Howe is a photojournalist who has worked extensively in Colombia...
...As a result, there is fighting to take over towns and to control the people and the money...
...And in my case, I am O.K., because I get paid...
...How much money do you get paid...
...It hurt me to see his mother crying, knowing I was the one guilty of having caused that...
...Yes...
...Against the government...
...I don't know how to answer...
...I shut myself inside, but with time I forgot everything...
...No, the AUC schools are run by people who have left or are retired from the army...
...Do you think fear is the same as respect...
...If it could be vice versa...
...She gives me a lot of advice because it hurts her that I am like this...
...I killed the first person just to see if I could...
...Sometimes you have a great time...
...So nobody's life is more important than yours...
...So when I met the AUC, I left my studies to join them...
...I have known the AUC since they arrived in this area, but I have only worked with them for two and a half years...
...Because [the paramilitaries] don't care about killing a person, it doesn't bother them...
...That's the motive-coca and money...
...If you don't kill that person, someone else from the AUC will come to kill you...
...For the civilians...
...If anyone in your family were with the guerrillas, would you kill him or her...
...Do you think more violence in this country is the solution...
...I have children...
...But I'd like to get out of here and go somewhere else, have good work and make progress...
...But there is an obligation to kill...
...I feel normal...
...But the distant family, like cousins, nieces, if they were on the other side...
...They ask me if I regret what I have done...
...In some other societies people are respected for being kind or generous, but here people respect you because you have a bigger gun...
...But in the jungle, they respect you for what you have on...
...It's my life or theirs...
...How was your first time in combat...
...Right now, I don't really get involved...
...Once you are in position it's O.K., you are not nervous, you're just shooting ahead...
...But usually we coordinate with them because we have the same cause...
...Meanwhile, local peasants and townsfolk continue to live their lives amid the violence...
...You have killed your friends...
...Everybody is distinguished by their rank...
...They say they fight each other and they have had some encounters, but only when troops are lost...
...Now I get paid per job...
...I don't know...
...After that I took a break...
...We have to defend ourselves...
...For example, do you think your work helps the situation...
...Only, you don't know where the first shot is coming from...
...they have to stay in the mountains...
...I only do the job for money...
...Yes, I've known them...
...So in that case, you must kill to not be killed...
...Right now I'm tired, and it hurts to have killed so many people...
...But I believe yes, if they had the capacity to kill, even though they are family...
...n of an assassinated teacher is opened for the eir farewells...
...With them I was paid monthly...
...Have you been in combat...
...But I did it because the people who ordered me to kill had investigated them a lot...
...Mainly it is women who pay...
...They are afraid of you because they know if they raise their voice at you or do something you don't like, you may shoot them, kill them or something like that...
...They trained us very well...
...They send helicopters, but only sometimes...
...They just want respect...
...Vol XXXVII, No 4 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2004 9 0: 9 Vol XXXVII, No 4 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2004How did you feel when you killed the first person ? When I killed the first person, I was afraid, I was scared...
...And now you work for the AUC in what way...
...Because I reached the 11lth grade, I can go to the university and carry on studying...
...to say th The [Colombian] army's school...
...It's more difficult because they cannot come to the villages...
...I want to change my life...
...How many people have you killed...
...So the reality of the situation is that now you kill for cash...
...If anyone in my family were with the guerrillas...
...So if the FARC were stronger and the life was easier, would you fight for them...
...Well yes, because they know that if they offend the person with the gun they can be killed...
...It was very painful for me [to kill one friend...
...They don't feel the pain of others...
...I don't know...
...That's what we learned during the three months of training school...
...I take a motorbike and I go to see the target and I shoot them in the head, and then I leave...
...Two and a half years...
...At first, people were scared because they thought the paramilitaries had arrived to kill whomever...
...I just colfamily laborate...
...How many years have you been with the United SelfDefense Forces of Colombia (AUC...
...Once when [the FARC] killed 28 of my companions including a woman and another time when they killed 15...
...In total, I have killed 23 people with my own hands...
...My life, my parents, my daughter and close family are very important...
...Because they are jealous that their husband is seeing someone else...
...Now I am still killing and nothing happens...
...How many people are killed in this town...
...I help people, and those people have no more problems with their husbands...
...They told me to take care because they worked for the other side and had connections with the guerrillas...
...Yes, I was in combat twice...
...The maximum I get is US$500, but it's always more than US$300...
...Now I am working with the urban militia...
...I have to speak with the bosses and they use me sometimes when they need to kill someone or investigate people or take people from the village...
...I use a gun...
...Most of the region's other towns and villages have been controlled by the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) for decades...
...More than anything they were friends...
...So, it is much easier to put a bullet in the head...
...But you keep trembling...
...The interviewee, who we have named Lorena, requested that her exact location and true identity not be revealed...
...The situation in Colombia is extreme, and Colombia is one of the most violent countries...
...Well, my family, they advise me not to do this...
...The person was crying, saying, "Don't kill me...
...I simply joined to see if I had the capacity to kill someone...
...es play More than anything, the fight here is for money and that comes from coca...
...If you don't, they kill you...
...How did you first make contact with the AUC...
...If someone gives me enough money to kill someone, I do it...
...Are the paramilitaries fighting against the government...
...Before I was obligated, but now it's just for money, and the money is everything...
...But the life of the guerrillas is more difficult...
...That's why it was difficult and sad...
...I don't think that this situation will be solved...
...They needed collaboration from the people in the villages, so I told them who were guerrillas and who weren't and other things...
...No, because they would kill me...
...Maybe not...
...In a region where respect is only afforded at gunpoint, the rebels and paramilitaries swell their ranks with youths, like Lorena, eager to support and empower themselves...
...More than anything else, that's why I joined the AUC...
...How can it not be sad...
...Right now there aren't many deaths, an average of three or four a day...
...Instead of large-scale massacres, they began selectively assassinating people whose names appeared on death lists, often provided by rebel deserters or military intelligence...
...Sometimes I use a knife, but with a knife it's more difficult because you need more strength and so you need others to help...
...The second time is only a bit easier, but as they say here, "If you can kill one, you can kill many more...
...It's tough training, like in the army, and if you don't pass the training you are killed...
...But now when I do a job, I get paid cash...
...it didn't matter how many I killed...
...The AUC is financed by coca and so is the FARC...
...But when there are many killings, it's like five or seven...
...It was with this tactical shift that Lorena went from being a paramilitary soldier to an assassin...
...When they pay me and tell me to kill, that's what I do...
...But you are yourself or nobody, and you want respect...
...I also wanted to learn how they lived...
...Many of these young people have lived their entire lives in the midst of a conflict whose principal victim has been the civilian population...
...You can't eat or talk to anyone...
...The first thing you learn is how to handle 7.62 and 5.56 mm weapons...
...Why did you join the AUC...
...Was the second time much easier...
...I was at home, but I kept imagining the person begging not to be killed...
...The people have never liked the guerrillas because of the extortion...
...What are the A UCfighting for...
...They have fear and at the same time they have respect, because we are in control...
...His work is online and can be viewed at <ww conflictpics.co.uk...
...I don't know...
...They told me we have to press forward, that we have to kill them or they will kill us...
...If you had the same opportunities again, what would you do...
...Carlos Castafio devised this new strategy to avoid the negative publicity generated by massacres...
...They spoke very well, treated people well and were very proud...
...The army and the AUC are always after them...
...Depending on where we are fighting, we receive assistance...
...But then I made friends with some of the guys...
...The AUC control the town where she lives and several villages in the area...
...Maybe yes, maybe no...
...So I asked permission to do it, which [the AUC] gave me...
...You learn that nothing in this life is certain...
...After the killing you keep trembling...
...And so it was my life or theirs...
...INTERVIEW/ASSASSIN and people respect you when you are in camouflage and have your rifle...
...With time, you know how to move...
...Local residents caught in the crossfire have few options: endure the violence, flee the violence or join the violence...
...Sure, the second time it was very easy, I was not scared or nervous...
...Have you killed people you know...
...Do you think that is sad...
...My mother and father...
...The superiors always say, "Don't worry, that was just the first time...
...You have to lose the fear...
...Yes, it's always sad...
...I was at the burial and at the vigil...
...Was your second time in combat much easier...
...That's why the first was very hard, because the person I killed was kneeling down begging not to be killed...
...By the end of 2001, after perpetrating several massacres, paramilitaries established a prominent presence in numerous towns throughout the region...
Vol. 37 • January 2004 • No. 4
