Reply To: We shall overcome comrade Mariana.

[Congo]

I saw the same man, his almost sixty years in the area of ​​Uribe, Meta, planning and carrying out ambushes the army.
By Gabriel Angel
Learned of the death of Comrade Martin Villa, it seems appropriate to recall the history of the oldie Fabio, a former guerrilla seventy years devoted to farm work today. As a child, political violence forced his father to leave the rural area of ​​Tulua and migrate with their three boys north of Tolima children.
Several guys were liberal guerrillas, and the region that was then came hotbed of guerrillas. In Lebanon, Santa Teresa and Santa Isabel operated the Sangrenegra, Tarzan and Desquite appointed, of which groups were part many natives of the area. A premium Fabio, Mariela, was then Sangrenegra woman. And Fabio ended up doing the guerrillas of the latter. His tenure in that group was brief and ended in the most unexpected way.
His cousin, Mariela, looked after him zealously as he was only eleven or twelve. Sangrenegra met those of a rite that emboldened, drink the blood of the enemies they killed, to get your energies. And the day Sangrenegra considered that Fabio should catch up to the others, drinking the blood of a dead man before them was reached. Mariela adamantly opposed, and the incident led to the departure of Fabio group and region.
He emigrated to the territory Vásquez, where lived an aunt and several cousins ​​in a village called Blackboard, Puerto Boyaca, a region of colonization, refuge of former liberal guerrillas and where they already had disputes over land ownership between small aspiring settlers and landowners. In addition, the old fight with the Texas Petroleum Company, flourished and took force some workers and peasant organizations.
Perhaps it was why in 1962 appeared the Agualinda and Palagua sidewalks exceptional character, a doctor and radical ideas, Federico Arango Fonnegra, determined to organize a guerrilla head the popular uprising, in imitation of what has been achieved by Che and Fidel in Cuba. His books, magazines and preachings quickly seduced Fabio, who by then was around fifteen. According to his account, the group became about forty farmers in the area.
novelistic are the adventures of the group managed to hold a little over a year, and whose greatest test was the death of Federico Arango own hands Battalion Colombia. In his later flight, they decided to cross the river and Guaguaquí located in Cundinamarca. Calm things returned to Puerto Boyaca, but then discovered that the Palanquero base had become a training school bands of armed civilians, whose aim was to locate and kill guerrillas and collaborators. Several of these groups were behind them.
In the midst of a real enemy encirclement, one morning received a visit from two strangers peasants. One was identified as Alfonso Betancur, and the other as Rafael, nicknamed bozo brush. They were members of the Communist paramilitaries in the area, and learned they were among the first contact Federico Arango to reach the region. From the shadows, they had served as props Federico, no matter who was not a Party member. Now they coming to assist them to them. Thereafter they became his staunchest collaborators, even when internal problems the group decided to disband. The weapons negotiated with these paramilitaries.
That Alfonso Betancur, years later, would convene a regional conference of peasant self-defense groups and raise them to become guerrillas to join such as the FARC, the organization created by Manuel Marulanda and Jacobo Arenas after Marquetalia operation. It took the name of Martin Villa and was featured in the insurgent history as founder of the Fourth Front of the FARC, which years later would spring up countless Fronts that would move to other areas of the country. Fabio, of course, was one of its first members.
Narro this a bit with the intention to point out how the lives intersect. When I traveled to San Vicente del Caguan, a member of the Thematic Commission in the failed peace process with Andrés Pastrana, I met Martin Villa, then a second of Jorge Briceno, Mono, in leading the Eastern Bloc. Intelligent and generous look, I saw him a few years later, in times of Plan Patriot, always in command of a company of public order, ordering and directing the response to the various operations of the Army.
Villa, as it was called in the Eastern Bloc, had specialized in handling explosives and taught about it. Listed as one of the commanders who were responsible for preparing the Swan 3 operation against Eagle 2 in the area of ​​Guayabero River, 1980, in which for the first time in the open, a guerrilla force managed to besiege and copar a complete patrol contraguerrilla soldiers. I saw the same man, his almost seventy years, in the area of ​​Uribe, Meta, planning and carrying out ambushes the army, moving like a fish between mobile brigades. And years later, in Arauca, with a large map spread out before her blue eyes, looking at the development of military operations and figuring out how to deal with them.
Martin Villa attended various meetings of the leadership of the FARC in which regard the current peace process was discussed. He expressed full support for the political solution. In the early days of guerrillas, after a failed ambush on a military convoy, he met with surprise that the uninjured enemies by jumping ground, a soldier fell on him, just as his chaperone refused to answer. In combat, he found no recourse but to appeal to the machete to get rid of him. So the guerrillas demanded carrying the machete in his belt. Imperialism and the oligarchy had to fight them politically, with guns, with whatever it was, it was important to beat them one day. I agree with Fabio, there are many things to remember Villa.
Mountains of Colombia, February 9, 2016