(Miami Herald) – Child soldiers are the most helpless and most voiceless of the vast victim pool created by five decades of war in Colombia. On Saturday in Havana, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos’ administration will reconvene with the leadership of Colombia’s largest insurgency, known by the acronym FARC. And, for the first time in two years of peace talks, the warring sides will turn the stage over to the conflict’s victims. When these victims take the microphone to air their grievances, they will denounce displacement, maiming by land mines, kidnappings, rapes, and massacres — laying blame to the patchwork of the country’s armed actors. But one of these armed groups straddles the line between victim and victimizer and will not be invited on stage: Colombia’s estimated 7,000 child soldiers.
