The group of men who ate in Maria’s restaurant in her Colombian border town seemed no different from other rural workers. But when she asked them to pay, their tall, bearded leader kicked down her door and tried to kidnap her two sons. Then the men, who Maria now knows belonged to a left-wing guerrilla group considered terrorists by the United States, ordered Maria to abandon her home and business within 48 hours. Now living in refugee housing near this gritty Ecuadorian border town, Maria, who didn’t want her real name used for fear of retribution, wonders what happened to her sons since that fateful day nearly a year and a half ago. She also fears the guerrillas will pursue her into Ecuador – as has happened to other Colombian refugees. She wants to be resettled in the US or Spain, where she can “live in peace and work.” Full Story
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