Massacre of Barbacoas, Nariño, 2003

This massacre was in Barbacoas, Nariño, in 2003.

“El Paisa,” the commander, is the one holding the radio, and that is when he got carried away. He started killing people. Some people were working with the paramilitaries and others with the Army.

They killed all the members of three families. They had brothers in the Army. Each family had one brother in the Army.

Then, when they carried out that massacre, I was offended because a women from one of these families had ties with me.

I didn’t see the massacre, but the corpses were still there when we arrived. I saw the girl lying there, Yuli. She was 18 years… This other was my girlfriend’s father and this one was her mother. Avinson, the brother was eight years old…This is her sister and this one is her son who was seven years old.

We had to bury them, there was no wake, no wake at all because they did not have any one to mourn them. ‘El Paisa’ killed my girlfriend, my sister-in-law and my brother-in­ law. It is then that my heart, let’s say … I felt enraged. I said, “I will not stay one more year with the FARC. I won’t stay because I know that if I stay another year, I will start killing people in massacres. I better leave!”

I deserted.