One day, while Amalia was in El Carmen (Sucre) buying corn for her shop, she heard that there were strong rumours that a group of armed men was planning to take the village where she lived. Fearful for her family, she called and told them to get out of the village. Although her husband did not want to go, her daughter convinced him and they eventually left the village, along with 36 other families.

The next day, which was 18 February 2000, her husband and daughter, seeing that nothing had happened, decided to return to the village. “That same day, in the afternoon, armed men entered the village. They forced over 300 people out of their homes and took them all to the village square,” says Amalia. “My husband was among them, with my daughter, her husband and their one-year-old son. She told me that they began killing a lot of people right there in front of the children. Suddenly, someone ordered the women and children to be taken away to one of the houses”.

While all this was happening in her village, Amalia was trying to get out of El Carmen. “The roads were blocked,” she recalls. “I managed to leave with my cart, but they stopped me on the road, made me get down and then burned the cart and the load of corn. While I was trying to find another means of transport, I received a call from someone who told me that my grandson and daughter had been spared, but that my husband had been killed.

After an agonizing two-day wait, Amalia managed to find another cart and get back to her village. “My husband had already been buried. Everything in the house had been torn apart, the refrigerator was full of bullet holes and the television had been smashed. They destroyed everything in the shop. They left me homeless and killed my husband. My daughter was deeply traumatized by what had happened to her father. For a long time she would not speak to anyone”.

“We decided to move to El Carmen, and there we managed to find a house for the whole family. Fortunately, I received some money that was owed to my husband for the tobacco he sold, and we managed to survive on that for a time.

Then we went to Sincelejo (Sucre). When we arrived, I went to the Red Cross and they helped us by giving us food supplies and some other items that were very useful while we were getting settled”.

After experiencing many difficulties, Amalia decided to stay in Sincelejo. She received benefits from the government, with which she was able to find a place to live. “Things are very difficult for me now. I scrape a living however I can; I sell whey and now I also make clothes on sewing machines that were given to me. I have no other choice”.