Disarming warlords a test for Colombia’s Uribe
Rafael says his life as a Colombian paramilitary fighter left him with nothing but dead friends and seven bullet scars. So a year ago he traded fighting for farming at a ranch near Bogota in a program set up by Colombian President Alvaro Uribe to demobilize illegal armed groups and prepare them to return to civilian life. “We exchanged guns for shovels,” said Rafael, 25, showing a bullet fragment lodged in his leg. “We’ve changed a lot of things, like the idea we can’t live without the war.” Full Story