FARC are/were murderers so rape is no big deal/

Rape, forced sterilisation and botched abortions: The sex slaves of Colombia's Farc guerrillas

•  Mathew Charles, in medellín

4 JANUARY 2020 • 3:53PM

n Colombia, they call it the invisible war. But for the children and teenagers for whom the playground became a battleground, the violence was unmistakable.

In a bloody civil conflict that lasted more than 50 years, almost 17,000 child soldiers were robbed of their youth, their innocence and in many cases, their lives. And they were not just cannon fodder.

Young girls, and sometimes boys, were recruited to become sex slaves. “It was as if I was a new toy,” says Yamile Noscué, who was abducted from her home by leftist guerrilla insurgents when she was just 15 in 2005. “I basically became their whore in camouflage,” she says.

Within a few hours of arriving at a camp belonging to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (the Farc) in Tolima, central Colombia, Yamile was subjected to rape and sexual assault. It would be an ordeal that lasted two years.

“After the commander has touched a girl, then anyone else can too, and whenever they want. The rapes are constant.”