Even Silence Has an End Part 30

"I was a little boy when your mother was a beauty queen. I remember her well. She was magnificent. That was another era, when queens were truly queens."

"Yes, Mom was very beautiful. She still is," I answered, more out of politeness than because I felt like talking.

"Your mother is from the Tolima region, like me."

"Oh?"

"Yes, that's why she has such a strong character. I listen to her every morning on the radio. She's right, what she says to you. The government isn't doing anything to obtain your release. In fact, for Uribe it would be better if you don't get out."

I didn't know what to say.

"Is she still looking after the orphans?"

"Yes, of course she is. It's her life."

"I was an orphan, too. My parents were ma.s.sacred during the violencia. violencia. I was well on my way to becoming a crook. At the age of eight, I had already killed a man. Marulanda took me in, I followed him everywhere, up to now." I was well on my way to becoming a crook. At the age of eight, I had already killed a man. Marulanda took me in, I followed him everywhere, up to now."

I was silent.

"I've always been Marulanda's right-hand man. For a long time, I was the one who was in charge of the FARC's treasure. It's hidden in a cave, in the Tolima region. There's only one way in, and I'm the only one who knows it. You can't see it from outside-it overlooks a ravine. You have to climb up the rocks. The FARC has acc.u.mulated mountains of gold; it's fabulous."

I wondered if he'd gone mad, or whether the story he was telling me was a yarn he'd made up for my benefit. He grew very animated, and there was an unusual gleam to his eyes.

"There's a castle nearby. It's a very well-known place-I'm sure your mother has been there. The land belonged to a very rich man. He was killed, so they say. It's all abandoned nowadays. n.o.body goes there anymore."

He believed his story. Maybe he'd made it up a long time ago and repeated it so often that he could no longer distinguish truth from make-believe. I was also under the impression that the story derived from his childhood memories. Maybe he'd heard it as a child and made it his own story now. I was fascinated to see him lost in this mystical world that belonged to him alone. I had learned at a very young age that in Colombia anything could happen. Reality was never circ.u.mscribed by what was possible. The barriers of the imagination were impermeable, and everything could live together in the most natural way.

Sombra's tale, with his mountains of gold, his secret pa.s.sages, the curse he maintained would fall on anyone who tried to remove any of the treasure took me back to the imaginary world of Colombian folklore. I asked him outlandish questions, and he replied, delighted that I was interested, and for a moment we both forgot that he was my jailer and I was his victim.

I would have liked to despise Sombra. I knew he was capable of the worst things, that he could be cruel and cynical, and the prisoners loathed him.

But in certain situations I also glimpsed, as if through the cracks in his personality, a sensitivity that touched me. I found out, for example, in the jumble of gossip that went around the prison, that La Boyaca was pregnant. When he came back from his little trip, with the letters from my mother, I congratulated him, thinking he must be happy to become a father. It was as if my words had stabbed him, and I quickly apologized, dismayed at the pain they seemed to cause him. "It's just that ..." He hesitated. "The commanders decided it wasn't a good time for La Boyaca to be pregnant. The army is everywhere. . . . She had to have an abortion."

"That's terrible," I replied. He nodded in silence.

Clara's child was born a few months later. I would often see Sombra playing with the baby, walking around the camp with him in his arms, happy to be pampering a little one.

I had acc.u.mulated countless grievances against him, but when he was there next to me, I found it hard to hold them against him. I had to confess I had a liking for this vulgar, despotic, brigand of a man. I sensed he must feel similarly conflicted about me. I must represent everything he'd always hated, everything he'd fought against his entire life, and the guards had supplied him with every possible and imaginary piece of gossip, so he must mistrust me as much as I mistrusted him. And yet every time we spoke together again, our compa.s.s showed us a different north.

While we were talking, one of the guards called out. Sombra looked up. Two men I'd never seen were waiting for him. He talked with them for a long while, then limped back over to me. "Your time with me is over. Let me introduce your new commanders. You must obey them from now on. You know the rules. I haven't had any trouble with you. I hope they won't have any either."

There must have been a note of joy in my voice when I held out my hand to Sombra to say, "I don't suppose we will ever meet again."

He spun on me like a snake who's been trampled on, and he hissed, "You are mistaken. I'll be your commander again within three years."

The poison immediately took effect. I had never entertained the possibility of staying in the hands of the FARC for five years. When Armando had revealed to me that he'd been in captivity for five years, I looked at him as if he were a Chern.o.byl survivor, with a mixed feeling of horror and commiseration, plus relief at the thought that no, that wouldn't happen to me. Sombra's words unleashed a flood of anxiety. All through the march, he'd been dangling the glimmering lure of release. When he had spoken about the French and the negotiations they'd begun with the FARC, it was only a strategy to make me hold out, a strategy to keep me moving. In one second I saw before me the film of that endless march-the swamps inundated with clouds of mosquitoes, the roller coasters of the cansaperros, cansaperros, the ravines, the rivers infested with piranhas, entire days under a baking sun, the rain, hunger, and sickness. Sombra had played a clever trick on me, and he had come out the winner. the ravines, the rivers infested with piranhas, entire days under a baking sun, the rain, hunger, and sickness. Sombra had played a clever trick on me, and he had come out the winner.

Two men were appointed to take over and ensure my transportation. I stood before them and said, "I don't want to be carried in the hammock. From now on I'll walk."

Sombra's eyes nearly popped out of his head. He had thought of everything-except this. He looked at me angrily, particularly as I was making him lose face, but finally he decided to keep quiet. Sombra's troops were lined up along the path. I was proud to set off on my own two feet, to leave behind those people. And with them the prison, the humiliation, the hatred, and everything that had poisoned our existence for a year. I felt it like revenge: They were the ones who were staying. I lacked the strength to carry my backpack, and even just putting one foot in front of the other made me dizzy. But I felt as if I had wings, because I was the one leaving.

FIFTY-FIVE.

THE CHAINS.

EARLY NOVEMBER 2004.

From the first minutes of my contact with Jeiner, the young commander who had taken over from Sombra, I felt as if I'd stepped onto another planet. He walked by my side, taking my hand to help me cross a little stream and stopping the entire group so that I could catch my breath. Before the end of my second day in their company, Jeiner sent a contingent of young boys to bring back supplies. They were waiting for us on the path with fresh coajada coajada and and arepas. arepas.52 I chewed every bite religiously, savoring all the juice and texture. For so long we'd eaten nothing but little portions of rice. The delight was like a fireworks display. The effect lasted for hours; my taste buds were on fire and my guts had gone wild, rumbling indiscreetly like an unoiled gear suddenly beginning to work. I chewed every bite religiously, savoring all the juice and texture. For so long we'd eaten nothing but little portions of rice. The delight was like a fireworks display. The effect lasted for hours; my taste buds were on fire and my guts had gone wild, rumbling indiscreetly like an unoiled gear suddenly beginning to work.

The weather was fine, and the jungle was at its most magnificent. We entered a new world. The light pierced through the foliage, scattering beams of color as if we were walking through a rainbow. Crystalline waterfalls leaped over gleaming polished rocks and set the fish free; they took flight and landed, wriggling, at our feet. The water wound its way between the trees, leading to a bed of emerald green moss, where we sank up to our knees. We continued without hurrying, as if we were on a stroll. We even camped for a few days around a turquoise-blue pool carpeted with fine sand. It was at the base of a waterfall that zigzagged through the trees to disappear mysteriously into the forest. I would have liked to stay there forever.

The team that Jeiner commanded was made up of children, the youngest hardly ten years of age, and they carried their rifles as if they were playing war games. The eldest girl was Katerina, a black girl scarcely out of adolescence, who had been appointed to prepare my meals according to very strict instructions from Jeiner, intended to speed my recovery. I was not allowed any salt, and everything had to be boiled in disgusting medicinal plants whose most obvious property was to ruin the taste of all the food. Katerina was scolded one evening because I hadn't eaten the noodles she prepared, and I felt bad for her. I later understood that the second in command, a young guy called "the Donkey," had it in for her because she'd refused his advances. Her girlfriends were particularly hard on her and asked to have her replaced immediately by somebody else. The world of children could be even harder and crueler than that of adults. I saw her crying in her corner, and I tried to smile and talk to her whenever I ran into her during the march.

We had come to a house, in the middle of the virgin forest, where enormous fruit trees intertwined their branches with the jungle foliage. On one side of the house, there was an enormous satellite dish, as if a huge blue mushroom had grown there under the effect of ionizing radiation.

It was there that I met Arturo, one of the commanders of the First Front of the Eastern Bloc, Jeiner's superior. He was a black giant of a man, with an intelligent gaze and a self-confident swagger. When he saw me, he rushed up to me and smothered me in his arms, saying, "We've been worried as h.e.l.l about you! Are my guys treating you right?"

He handed out precise orders, then did half the work he'd delegated by himself. His army of children gathered around him, and he would hug them as if they were his own. If these children were looking for a father, they have surely found one, If these children were looking for a father, they have surely found one, I thought, imagining what must have happened in these children's lives for them to end up as cannon fodder in the ranks of the FARC. I thought, imagining what must have happened in these children's lives for them to end up as cannon fodder in the ranks of the FARC.

"You are mistaken," pointed out Lieutenant Bermeo. "These kids have a greater chance of surviving in war than the adults do. They are braver, more agile, and sometimes more ruthless. The FARC is all they know. There are no borders between play and reality. It's later on that it gets complicated, when they realize that they've lost their freedom and they want to run away. But by then it's too late."

My new companions had been observing the guerrillas for years, and nothing could fool them. When I mentioned how bad I felt about the business with Katerina, Bermeo warned me, "Don't let your feelings show. The better they get to know you, the more they'll manipulate you. They managed to put pressure on you, and you started walking. That's what they wanted, for you to feel guilty about being carried in a hammock, although it's their job. They take us hostage, and we're supposed to thank them on top of it!"

That was the same evening I met Arturo. He seemed delighted to speak to me. We sat down next to each other on a dead tree and spoke about who we were in civilian life. He described his childhood on the Pacific coast, on the esteros esteros53 of the Rio Timbiqui, in a jungle as thick as this one. I knew the region well. Arturo began to talk about his African origins. Centuries before, men like him had been brought as slaves to work in the mines and sugar plantations. "My ancestors ran away. They preferred the jungle to having a chain around their necks. I'm the same. I've chosen the jungle, not to be enslaved by poverty." of the Rio Timbiqui, in a jungle as thick as this one. I knew the region well. Arturo began to talk about his African origins. Centuries before, men like him had been brought as slaves to work in the mines and sugar plantations. "My ancestors ran away. They preferred the jungle to having a chain around their necks. I'm the same. I've chosen the jungle, not to be enslaved by poverty."

Without thinking, I blurted out, "You've never had a chain around your neck, but you still talk about the ones your ancestors carried. How can you stand to see soldiers subjected to the same treatment, knowing that you are responsible, that's it's your fault?"

He was speechless, immobile, absorbing the blow. My companions were across from us, far enough away that they couldn't hear. They were dragging themselves along with the chains that hindered their movements, that obliged them to go through all kinds of maneuvers to avoid choking each other whenever they stepped too far apart. Arturo seemed to be looking at them as if for the first time, although we'd been together for days.

I hammered the nail a bit deeper. "I cannot understand how a revolutionary organization can end up behaving worse than the very people it is fighting."

Arturo stood up, rubbing his knees. There was something feline about his perfectly defined muscles. He held out his hand to conclude our discussion and went on his way.

After the evening meal, Jeiner arrived with a handful of keys that Sombra had given to him. He inserted them, one after the other, into each padlock, until all the chains were removed. The chains were so heavy that two men were needed to help him carry them. They were taken to Arturo.

FIFTY-SIX.

THE HONEYMOON.

NOVEMBER 2004.

Without the chains we all felt lighter. There was a good atmosphere in the camp. Arturo led the march, and the kids behaved like kids. They played, and fought among themselves, and ran after one another, and rolled in the moss hugging each other. We looked like a tribe of nomads.

I spoke a great deal with Lucho. During quiet hours, when there was a break in the march, we would discuss the reforms and the projects we dreamed of for Colombia.

I was obsessed with the idea of high-speed rail, a supersonic machine traveling through s.p.a.ce like a meteor, winding its way through my country's Andes Mountains, balanced above the void on a gravity-defying elevated track. I wanted it to travel from the north coast of Colombia through the paramos paramos54 and valleys to serve the inhabitants of inaccessible, forgotten villages that were dying of solitude, then wind its way westward, to open a route to the magnificent Cauca Valley and reach the luxuriant and abandoned Pacific coast. I wanted it to be a means of transportation for everyone, rich and poor, to make the country accessible to everyone, because I was convinced that only through a spirit of unity and sharing would it be possible to achieve greatness. Lucho told me I was crazy. I answered that I was free to dream. "Just imagine for one moment that you could, on an impulse, get a train and two hours later be dancing salsa on the beach in Juanchaco. Completely safe." and valleys to serve the inhabitants of inaccessible, forgotten villages that were dying of solitude, then wind its way westward, to open a route to the magnificent Cauca Valley and reach the luxuriant and abandoned Pacific coast. I wanted it to be a means of transportation for everyone, rich and poor, to make the country accessible to everyone, because I was convinced that only through a spirit of unity and sharing would it be possible to achieve greatness. Lucho told me I was crazy. I answered that I was free to dream. "Just imagine for one moment that you could, on an impulse, get a train and two hours later be dancing salsa on the beach in Juanchaco. Completely safe."

"In a country crawling with guerrillas, that's impossible!"

"Why should it be impossible? The conquest of the American West took place with stagecoach robbers everywhere, and that didn't stop them. It's so important that we could buy the luxury of having armed guards every five hundred yards. You wanted to create jobs for them, why not the railroad?"

"Colombia is up to its ears in debt. We can't even pay for the Bogota Metro! And now you want a high-speed train!"

I argued that it would be a great investment opportunity, and it could be financed by selling stocks.

"It's a crazy idea-but it could work!" said Lucho.

"It would be a huge building site. It would provide jobs for professionals, engineers, and others, but also for all those young people who at the moment have no other way out than to offer their services to organized crime."

"And what about corruption?" Lucho would add.

"Citizens would have to get organized to keep an eye on the project on every level, at every stage. With the law behind them, to protect them, it can be done."

It was time to bathe. We went to a huge swamp formed by the overflow of the river. They had set up two parallel planks across the surface of the water between half-submerged tree branches over fifty yards or so. You had to walk across them, keeping your balance, to reach the place that had been a.s.signed to us for was.h.i.+ng and laundry. We were all spread out on either side of these planks, guerrillas and hostages alike, scrubbing.

This was the hour my comrades preferred, because the guerrilleras guerrilleras bathed in their bras and underwear, then paraded along the footbridge to go get dressed on solid ground. Jeiner's companion, Claudia, was the most admired of all. She was blond, with green eyes, and her skin had a silvery s.h.i.+ne to it that seemed luminescent; moreover she had a natural flirtatiousness that became more noticeable when she knew you were looking at her. The day the front leader arrived, n.o.body was in any hurry to go and meet him. Claudia was ordered to get out and dress elsewhere. bathed in their bras and underwear, then paraded along the footbridge to go get dressed on solid ground. Jeiner's companion, Claudia, was the most admired of all. She was blond, with green eyes, and her skin had a silvery s.h.i.+ne to it that seemed luminescent; moreover she had a natural flirtatiousness that became more noticeable when she knew you were looking at her. The day the front leader arrived, n.o.body was in any hurry to go and meet him. Claudia was ordered to get out and dress elsewhere.

The war name of the commander of the First Front was Cesar55-again. He was standing there in his fancy khaki uniform, a beret over his forehead, Hugo Chavez style, and a big chemical-white smile that made us envious. When, acting the great lord, he asked us what we needed, we answered in unison that we wanted a dentist. He promised he would take care of it, particularly as fat Sergeant Marulanda had ill.u.s.trated how years of captivity had taken their toll: Right before Cesar he opened his mouth wide and pointed to the enormous hole left by a dental apparatus lost during a march. Cesar deemed that this evidence was enough.

Cesar also allowed us to make a list to order supplies. I could recite from memory the list I'd made a couple of years earlier for Mono Jojoy, and I added a radio, because we desperately needed one. Since we'd been brought together, we all had to share my worn-out little radio, which was now behaving in a very capricious way, the reception erratic and completely unreliable.

The soldiers' excitement at the thought they'd be able to order what they needed contrasted sharply with Lucho's despondency.

"They're not going to release us," he said, his heart sinking, confessing that in fact he had shared some of my hope.

"The soldiers told me that when the recruits were liberated,56 the FARC had dressed them in new clothes from head to toe," I answered stubbornly. the FARC had dressed them in new clothes from head to toe," I answered stubbornly.

"I need to get out, Ingrid. I can't stay here. I'm going to die."

"No, you're not going to die here."

"Listen. Promise me something."

"Yes."

"If we're not liberated by the end of the year, we'll escape."

I didn't say anything.

"Yes or no?"

"It's really hard ..."

"Yes or no, answer me."

After a moment of silence, I said, "Yes."

Cesar had set up a tent, and in this tent he had built a table out of young tree trunks. From his bag he pulled a metallic, ultralight laptop computer. It was the first VAIO I'd ever seen in my life. I looked at it awestruck, like a child watching Mary Poppins open her magical bag. The scene was utterly incongruous, and fascinating at the same time. Here we had a technological marvel before us, a cutting-edge device placed on a table worthy of the Neolithic era. As if echoing this perception, they brought us some logs to sit on. Cesar had been kind enough to bring us a film, and the screening was about to begin. He wanted us all to cl.u.s.ter around the little screen, which we did, casually enough, until we saw him fiddling somewhat nervously with the computer applications.

Bermeo-the lieutenant in our group of prisoners-read my thoughts more quickly than I could myself. He nudged me with his elbow and said, "Watch out, he's trying to film us!"

His warning spread like wildfire. In a split second, we all scattered and agreed to come and sit back down only once the film had started. Cesar laughed, like a good loser, but now we were all wary. Nothing he asked us from that point on would get a spontaneous answer. What I remember from that dialogue of the deaf was the incidental information I managed to grasp in pa.s.sing. Cesar was the commander of the First Front. He was a rich man, and business was doing incredibly well. Cocaine production was filling his coffers to the brink. "We have to fund the revolution somehow," he said with a laugh. His girlfriend was in charge of the finances, and she was the one who approved expenses and who could authorize, among other things, the purchase of gadgets like this laptop computer Cesar was so proud of. I also concluded that because Cesar never missed an opportunity to refer to this young Adriana by name, he must be madly in love.

I was not the only one who had noticed. Pinchao whispered to me with a mischievous laugh, "I hope Adriana will be in a good mood when she gets our list!" Two days later (in record time), we received our order. Everything except my dictionary.That evening Arturo introduced us to another commander.

"Jeiner has been called away on another mission. Mauricio will be looking after you from now on."

Mauricio was a big guy with a hawklike gaze and a carefully groomed mustache above thin lips, and he wore a light cotton poncho like the one Manuel Marulanda wore as a scarf. Mauricio used his to hide a missing arm.

Unlike Jeiner, he had come in like a cat, doing the rounds of the caletas caletas with a suspicious air. The soldiers had gotten out of their hammocks to speak with him, and they called us over. with a suspicious air. The soldiers had gotten out of their hammocks to speak with him, and they called us over.

"What do you think of him?" asked Lucho when Mauricio had left.

"I preferred Jeiner."

"Yes, good things never last with them."

In the morning we had a visit from a group of very mischievous young guerrilleras guerrilleras . In the same manner as Mauricio, they lurked around the . In the same manner as Mauricio, they lurked around the caletas, caletas, laughing among themselves and eyeing the prisoners. Eventually they peered into my tent. One of them, a voluptuous girl with prominent b.r.e.a.s.t.s, long black hair braided to below her waistline, and almond eyes rimmed with thick lashes that seemed endless, said in a childish voice, "Are you Ingrid?" laughing among themselves and eyeing the prisoners. Eventually they peered into my tent. One of them, a voluptuous girl with prominent b.r.e.a.s.t.s, long black hair braided to below her waistline, and almond eyes rimmed with thick lashes that seemed endless, said in a childish voice, "Are you Ingrid?"

I laughed and, wanting to make her feel at ease, called my comrades over to introduce them.

Zamaidy was Mauricio's girlfriend. She called him "Pata-Grande" (Long Leg), and she had clearly put his promotion to good use, for she in turn reigned over a court of young girls who followed her devotedly. She wore a revealing fluorescent tank top that enhanced her curves, the envy of all her girlfriends. Her girlfriends obviously wanted to strive for the same effect, but they weren't as successful, which served to increase Zamaidy's ascendancy over them. If Zamaidy walked somewhere, they followed; if she sat down, they did, too; and if Zamaidy spoke, they fell silent.

Zamaidy's appearance had paralyzed our camp. The soldiers would shove each other aside for a chance to talk to her. She repeated her name to them only too willingly, explaining that it was not a very common name, and that you spelled it with a Z Z-another way for her to make it clear she knew how to read and write.

When the nurse who had just been appointed came in to introduce himself, only Lucho and I were there to talk to him. Camilo was a quick, intelligent young guy, with a friendly face that made everyone like him. We took to him immediately, particularly when he confessed that he didn't like to fight and that his vocation had always been to relieve the pain of others. At midnight, after we'd hiked for a while in the dark and total silence, the river appeared before us in all its majesty. A fine mist was floating on the surface, half concealing an enormous boat waiting by the riverbank. We were about to begin an endless journey. As usual they made us wait for hours before boarding. The moon had vanished, and the mist on the water had thickened. Camilo cast off, and the bongo ( bongo (a sort of Amazonian barge) throbbed throughout its iron hull, sounding like an old submarine, and we could only guess at the unfathomable depths of the waters we were sailing.

Each of us found a place to spend the night, while the bongo bongo plunged deep into the bowels of an ever denser jungle with its cargo of armed children playing on the deck, and its tired prisoners curled around their regrets. Mauricio was at the prow, with an enormous projector clamped between his knees throwing a beam of light through the fog into the tunnel of water and vegetation before him. With his one arm, he gave instructions to the captain who was standing at the stern, and I could not help but think that we were in the hands of a new breed of pirates. plunged deep into the bowels of an ever denser jungle with its cargo of armed children playing on the deck, and its tired prisoners curled around their regrets. Mauricio was at the prow, with an enormous projector clamped between his knees throwing a beam of light through the fog into the tunnel of water and vegetation before him. With his one arm, he gave instructions to the captain who was standing at the stern, and I could not help but think that we were in the hands of a new breed of pirates.

After an hour had gone by, Camilo took a metal bucket he'd found on the deck, wedged it between his legs, and turned it into a drum. The diabolical rhythm he produced roused everyone's spirits and sparked a fiesta. He mingled revolutionary songs with popular tunes; it was impossible not to join in. The girls improvised c.u.mbias c.u.mbias,57 to swaying their hips and whirling in place, possessed by a dizzying urge to live. They were driven wild by the onlookers' full-throated singing and vigorous hand clapping. Camilo banished the cold and boredom, and probably the fear, too. I looked at the starless sky and the endless river and this cargo of men and women without a future, and I sang all the louder, searching in this semblance of joy an aftertaste of happiness. to swaying their hips and whirling in place, possessed by a dizzying urge to live. They were driven wild by the onlookers' full-throated singing and vigorous hand clapping. Camilo banished the cold and boredom, and probably the fear, too. I looked at the starless sky and the endless river and this cargo of men and women without a future, and I sang all the louder, searching in this semblance of joy an aftertaste of happiness.