Colombia Video Report

Paramilitaries, guerillas and the government continue to fight - but civilians are caught in the crossfire.

Note: This is a transcript of Kevin Sites' video report from Colombia. You can watch the video or read the text below. 

Kevin Sites (on camera):
Colombia has suffered through four decades of war — a complicated scenario, which pits left wing guerrillas against right wing paramilitaries and the government armed forces. Now the drug trade, which once funded the armed groups, is now perhaps the sole reason for their fight. And as always, it's the innocent civilians caught in the crossfire.

Kevin Sites voice over:
The victims of Colombia's conflict are often easy to spot. Heliberto Prada Ardilla lost both hands, an eye, his teeth and a testicle when leftist guerrillas booby-trapped a gate he was walking through. The incident forced him to beg on the streets for five years to ear enough men to restore the sight in the eye he didn't lose. He says when he leaves this shelter for landmine victims, he'll have to go back to begging since there's little else he can do.

Eight-year-old Jonathan's right arm was blown off when he picked up an unexploded grenade. His grandmother says it could've been left by anyone from the army, the paramilitaries or the guerillas, since they all operate near their home.

The Colombian government has been fighting a two-front war for decades, one against leftist guerillas, the other against rightist paramilitaries, both heavily involved in drug trafficking.

But after lengthy negotiations, paramilitary groups all over the country have begun demobilizing, giving up the fight in return for amnesty and 18 months of salary.

But while the "paras" may have turned in their uniforms, in many communities they're still in control.

In towns like El Dificil in northeast Colombia, where unemployment runs as much as 60 percent, there is fear that the lack of jobs could motivate fighters to return to the fray.

In another village, La Mesa, these men say demobilization was hard for them. They're tired of war and simply want to forget the past.

But for an estimated two million Colombian civilians caught in the war's crossfire, that's all but impossible.

Like the Arhuaco indians...

Indian leader Serkamaqu (on camera):
We were born here. we grew up here. It's our territory — the Sierra Nevada. What we do here is to preserve nature.

Kevin Sites voice over:
...a coca chewing tribe that have been killed by both guerillas and paramilitaries, even though they say their only loyalty is to nature.

Kevin Sites (on camera):
One of the biggest problems in Colombia is that of internally displaced people — people forced to leave their homes because of the war. Many have settled here in southern Bogota in communities like Soacha where 80-percent of the inhabitants are displaced people. They live in a virtual shantytown — a place where the future is as shaky as the past.

Hector Cordoba says he was kidnapped and tortured by paramilitaries a year ago but then fled his home province of Choco to come to this shanty town in south Bogota. He breaks down recounting how paramilitaries put a bag over his head filled with salt so he couldn't breath, then punched and kicked him until he was urinating blood. But even now he says he doesn't feel safe since a different paramilitary group controls his new neighborhood. He doubts he'll ever go home again.

Robert Camacho was also displaced by the conflict. But it was leftist guerrillas that forced him from his home. He's made a life for himself in Soacha, but fears that the government may never legally recognize the shantytown and could one day force them to leave.

But as difficult as Colombia's problems are, citizens like musician and composer Cesar Lopez are just as committed to finding solutions. He and his band of political performance artists turn decommissioned guns from the conflict into — believe it or not — guitars. It is, Lopez says, a symbol of transformation and a message of hope for all of Colombia.

Kevin Sites (on camera):
With paramilitaries demobilizing and negotiations with the ELN, the second largest rebel group, the Colombian government can now focus on fighting FARC, a group many observers here say has little popular support left. And perhaps with these developments, Colombia may yet have a chance at peace. Reporting from the Hot Zone, I'm Kevin Sites in Bogota, Colombia.

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