I am Pedro Antonio’s big sister.  But I also have someone else who was disappeared: my husband.  They called him on the phone, he went out and never came home.  I know that he is already dead, but I’ve never found out the truth, and I need to know why they killed him.  It is very hard for me, but I think that in these situations, the youngest suffer the most.  My son was orphaned when he was eight years old.  It didn’t hurt him too much at the time because he couldn’t understand, but now he is sixteen, and he feels that void. And for me, it has been really hard to help him with his studies, to advise him, to work and help my family to get on in life.

I am part of a theatre group called El Tente, with other women whose relatives were victims in the armed conflict. In our work “Announcing the absence”, we tell our stories with the hope of raising awareness about the problem of forced disappearance, and share our realities filled with pain, injustice and impunity.  This artistic exercise has allowed us, in some way or other, to heal inside and unburden ourselves, and be able to move on little by little.

I hope they sign the peace accords and fulfil the agreements, that they don’t just stay as words.  Every day I ask myself the same thing: will this peace, that will be so wonderful for future generations, be possible? Will it really be a beautiful country were there isn’t all this pain?

Maria del Rosario Peña, Villavicencio