Nijmeijer, born and raised in Denekamp, was 24 years old when she joined FARC in 2002. While studying in Colombia, she was touched by the inequality in the country. She became known as a member of the Marxist-Leninist movement when her diary was found in 2007 following an attack by the Colombian army on the camp where she was staying.
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Among other things, Nijmeijer was involved in attacks in the Colombian capital Bogota. Later, as a translator and negotiator, she was part of a peace delegation that negotiated with the Colombian government in Cuba. In 2010, the US government put her on a terrorist list. After the signing of the peace agreement between the guerrillas and the Colombian government in 2016, most of the approximately 7,000 FARC fighters laid down their arms.
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At the beginning of last year it was announced that Nijmeijer had left the FARC because it no longer agreed with the party’s political decisions. She continued to live in Colombia. “If for years you cannot understand what is discussed, planned and decided, it is time to go,” she wrote at the time. in a statement. After that it was relatively quiet around them. Until now.
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“This book is a record of what I saw and experienced,” she wrote in a statement she shared on Twitter on Tuesday. “That doesn’t necessarily fit into the frame of reference that most Europeans have from the FARC or from Colombia.”
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And she adds: “There are testimonies from kidnapping victims, from soldiers, from politicians, but this is my story, the testimony of someone who is still convinced that another world is possible.”
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The book with the title “Tanja Nijmeijer, from guerrillas to the peace process“Will be released in November. Hollands Diep is the editor.
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