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The day her father was taken from their house “[a]ll [her] brothers and sisters were
outside crying and [her] mother was also crying with her sick child.” When they
captured him, the father begged the paramilitary not to kill him because he had five
children, one of them ill, and his spouse. Her younger sister, Yinda, cried all the
time. The following day, the inspector and the mayor came to inform them that the
paramilitary had killed her father and that his body was at the airport. Her sister
Yinda held on to her father’s photograph and her mother implored. They never saw
their father dead, but people told them that “they beheaded him, they played soccer
with the head […], and his head was ten meters away from the body. […] They were
not allowed to recover the bodies, whoever went to recover them […] was shot by
the paramilitary. […] The inspector issued a permit for [her] mother to recover [her]
father[, whom] they wrapped in a sheet and buried in a grave in the cemetery,
where they placed the head with the body. [She] only saw [her] father’s leg when
they took him by in a pick-up truck.” She never saw her father’s grave, and the day
he was buried her sister was very sad and afflicted.
When she heard that her father had been killed she cried a lot, and felt very angry,
as well as much grief, and she did not know what would become of [her mother, her
siblings and herself] without him, as they were very small. Afterwards, she and her
family went to Villavicencio and lived at the house of some friends of her father for a
month; they received food and support from the social program of the Church and
from friends, nothing from the government. At that time they were unable to study.
Her mother had to work in other people’s homes. Her father provided them with
food and everything. After his death they have had to suffer much deprivation, as
her mother could barely get food for them.
She had to go to a boarding school to be able to study again, although she wanted to
stay with her mother. She missed her family very much and for two years she did
not want to study because “psychologically [she] was not well, could not sleep well,
[had] nightmares […] with people chasing [her] father and [her] brothers. [She]
became aggressive. [S]he thought that everyone was her enemy.” Her life changed
very much after her father died, as she had always lived in a town with her two
parents and her current life is not like that. She would like to visit Mapiripán, but
would not stay because it brings her bad memories.
She had never testified before and she feels afraid now that she is testifying here, as
she is always mistrustful. Justice, for her, would be for all those involved in what
happened to her father to pay for the harm they did to them.
i) Roland Andrés Valencia Sanmiguel, son of José Rolan Valencia
He is eleven years old and was born in Mapiripán. He does not remember well what
his father was like, but he knows that he is dead. He misses having a father. Before,
he lived with his father, mother and brothers and sisters, and now he lives in a small
house in Villavicencio. His sister takes care of him while his mother works. He wants
to be a policeman “because the police help [other] people.”
j) Yinda Adriana Valencia Sanmiguel, daughter of José Rolan Valencia
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