BOGOTA, COLOMBIA — One rebel, call her Angelly, hijacked a private airplane to escape the guerrilla ranks. The other, Marilu Ramirez, is charged as a modern-day Mata Hari who at the time of her arrest had infiltrated the highest levels of Colombia's military establishment.
The stories of the two women, both members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, have riveted Colombians' attention in recent weeks, presenting the two faces of the guerrilla movement.
Angelly, a nom de guerre, is disillusioned with the rebellion. Ramirez, who in court last week denied all charges against her, still embraces it, according to authorities. The women embody advances and setbacks of the government's 40-year struggle against rebel forces -- and their stories underscore how daily occurrences in this strife-torn nation can surpass adventure novels for sheer audacity.
Brandishing her Galil submachine gun, Angelly, 23, forced her way onto an airplane taxiing on a jungle airstrip in late September and ordered the pilot to fly her to Villavicencio, near Bogota. She explained to him that her mission was not to wage war but to give herself up to Colombian authorities, to bid farewell to arms.
She had heard over the radio about government programs offering demobilized rebels a stipend, free housing, job training and forgiveness for some war crimes. President Alvaro Uribe has offered similar concessions to right-wing paramilitary forces.
The benefits are not what made Angelly flee after five years in the rebel ranks. It was the hope of reuniting with her 7-year-old daughter, who is being cared for by Angelly's mother in Bogota. And it was the mosquitoes, the boredom of life in the jungle and the mistreatment by rebel commanders.
"They tell you women have equal rights, but it's not so," said Angelly, who was too terrified of FARC reprisals to give her real name. She was interviewed in a Defense Ministry office here that houses the guerrilla demobilization program managers.
"It's we who wash the clothes and prepare the food. The commanders live well but the troops are forbidden things like beer and cigarettes," she said. "The jefes can have kids but when I got pregnant I had to take an abortion pill."
Angelly said she had planned an escape from her unit, the 16th Front of the FARC in the Amazon state of Vichada, for a year and a half. The opportunity came when she was sent alone to check on an arriving commuter airplane in the isolated town of Puerto Principe.
