8 Ways To Find The Best Web Design Agencies For Your…Etelvina Ramos’ story encompasses the war in the Colombian Amazon. She grew up alongside coca crops, witnessed several massacres, and was displaced by violence due to the illicit, but profitable, crop.Etelvina Ramos has a mission that is contrary to the interests of the drug trafficking industry: through her work in the Workers’ Association of Curillo , she is seeking the approval of a rural reserve.
Etelvina Ramos arrived in the Amazon at four years old because her father, José Antonio Ramos, promised to earn an inheritance for her and her ten siblings in a new land: a place where water flowed abundantly and food was so fresh that it seemed to be still alive. That night as a child, Etelvina Ramos struggled to sleep as she imagined the snake swallowing her whole body. Today, she fears another type of violence: that of humans.
In that land of nonexistent laws and government neglect, coca paste was sold as if it were corn, yucca, or bananas, although it had much greater profits. Nobody gave a name to this business, and the concept of legality versus illegality did not exist. Drug trafficking was not mentioned; everyone considered themselves to be farmers who lived off of what was cultivated on that generous land, where death due to exhaustion sometimes happened suddenly.
Etelvina Ramos found herself at the health clinic in a nearby village, talking to a nurse, when the bodies of eight guerrilla members arrived. She offered to help mend the dead bodies. “Doesn’t that scare you? You are still a girl,” asked the nurse. “They were scared,” answered the teenager, gesturing towards the bodies. An adult female guerrilla member had slashes on her breasts, stomach, and mouth. “I’m sure that they did it when she was alive,” said the nurse.
Etelvina Ramos was only 14 years old, and her entire world was reduced to that piece of land. She had never left the area, much less with an enormous package of coca paste. Without talking back, she prepared herself to transport five kilograms of coca wrapped in plastic and attached to her legs and stomach with adhesives. She only dared to ask for a handgun to defend herself from the robbers and animals in the jungle.
“How much do I have to give?” asked Etelvina Ramos, regarding a payment for a treatment. They agreed upon four cows over two months, and if she did not comply, she would go to the forest to be exchanged for her brother. She accepted.
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