Bogota--Aurora, who grew up doing back-breaking work on a farm in central Colombia, was 12 years old when she first set foot in a classroom, and the lesson was self-defense against "enemy combatants."
Her hometown was in a stronghold of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the Marxist guerrilla group that has been at war with the Colombian government for half a century.
When the rebels recruited her as a pre-teen, she ran away from home, where she had family problems, and was sent to the jungle for training. She studied military tactics and learned to use AK-47 and R-15 rifles.
"I was just about 13 when I used a gun for the first time," she told AFP. "They taught us lessons in a classroom. We learned a lot of stuff, like how to defend ourselves from the enemy."
She spent more than four years in the FARC, until her left leg was blown off in combat when she was 16.
Today, Aurora, whose name has been changed to protect her, is a petite, smiling 24-year-old who is studying to finish her high school degree.
There are no precise figures on how many minors have been recruited in Colombia, whose tangled conflict has drawn in multiple leftist guerrilla groups, right-wing paramilitaries and drug gangs since it erupted in the 1960s.
The state-run Family Wellbeing Institute says it has helped more than 5,000 child recruits since 1999.
Of these, 60 percent belonged to the FARC; 20 percent to the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), a right-wing paramilitary group; 15 percent to the National Liberation Army (ELN), another leftist guerrilla army; and the remainder to other armed groups.
Ending the recruitment of minors has been one of the issues on the table at peace talks between the FARC and the government, which began in 2012, seeking to end a conflict that has claimed 220,000 lives.
In February, the FARC pledged to stop recruiting minors under 17 years old.
But outraged Colombians called on the group to go further and release all minors currently in its ranks.
AFP
