They laid down arms. Now ex-guerrillas in Colombia fear fate under new hardline president

‘Total peace’ plan of previous government led only 99 of Colombia’s 30,000 armed combatants to disarm, but new president Abelardo De la Espriella opposes peace agreements

In mid-June, 99 guerrilla fighters were flown by helicopter to a small settlement in a rural area of southern Colombia where they lined up and, one by one, handed their weapons to government officials: rifles, pistols, machine guns and grenade launchers.

They also stripped off their heavy tactical vests, field packs and camouflage uniforms, which were each piled into a bonfire to mark the beginning of a new life away from an armed conflict that has claimed nearly half a million lives in the last six decades.

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