From Darkness Into the Light. Marino Restrepo

allowed me to look inside the cave.

      I became even more afraid when I saw the extended array of spider webs that had probably been there for several years. I had never seen anything of this magnitude before. They looked like the curtains of a big, macabre stage scene. Their surface was covered with a greenish slime. Slowly I began to observe the biggest and most hairy spiders I had ever seen. They seemed to know that I was looking at them. I realized I had made a big hole in one of those large spider webs where I had been laying for the last three days.

      The captor who took me out of the cave explained that they had no food because the group that was supposed to pick me up hadn’t arrived yet. He did not say whom they were waiting for or what they were planning to do with me. I did not dare ask any questions. I had lost all hope of surviving and — just to get it over with — felt like running away so they would capture and kill me quickly. However, I did not have the strength to do so.

      After a while, another criminal arrived with a bunch of green plantains and a can he probably had found nearby, with dirty water for me to drink. I suppose that under different circumstances anyone who had neither eaten nor drunk for several days would have considered the offer a real feast. However, I felt very weak and was not interested. When they noticed that I did not accept their food, they again put the hood on and bound my hands, this time at the front, which helped my blood circulation.

      The two men reminded me of a pair of hungry wolves that had finally hunted their prey down, and after searching around found a cave where to hide it, in order to share it later with the rest of the pack. Then they threw me back into the cave. Twelve days passed and no one appeared. Sometimes I could hear them arguing, and saying that they would wait one more day for them to appear or they would have to kill me. Thank God they did not. I had no idea what this was all about. Every other day, they would come and give me something to eat, which I began to accept. Living in that cave turned me into another bat. I had already learned the communication system between adults and their young bats; those high-frequency sounds gave me severe headaches since I was in the middle of that signal traffic. The excrement that fell during the day, after the early morning feeding time, had a horrible smell and increased the activity of all those bugs on the floor whose feeding zone included me. Sometimes I could feel huge armies of bugs coming into the cave to get some food for their own group. I could almost understand the negotiations that took place in order to decide the type and size of the prey they would take out, which included my skin and blood.

      One night, after spending 15 days in this hellish cave, I heard a large group of people arriving at night. They grabbed me, untied my hands and removed my hood. I felt great relief. My blood began to circulate again causing me great pain and many cramps. However, being out of the cave, untied and free of the hood was like being in heaven even though their intentions involved killing me. Suddenly nearly 80 men wearing military clothes surrounded me. I could easily notice that they were not military soldiers; they rather looked like a group of actors in a Poncho Villa’s film. Yet, this was real life. They all appeared to be under 18. The only man that seemed to be over 30 began to talk.

      This man did not look at me while speaking; he kept moving around me. In a voice loud enough for all to hear, he explained that I had been kidnapped and sold to them by the men who had taken me to the cave. He identified himself as the commander of the group that belonged to one of the largest guerrilla-groups in Colombia.

      This caricature-like commander showed me a list with the names of all my sisters, their correct addresses and telephone numbers. He told me I would have to pay him an incredibly large amount of money as ransom. He also stated that that was just a small amount of the fortune I supposedly had. Then he went on telling me that my initial kidnappers wanted me dead after the ransom was paid, because they were afraid of me going after them since they were from my hometown and I had recognized them. I found out later that these men belonged to a well-known family from my village that had failed in the drug-trafficking business, and that they were paying off their debts by kidnapping people. The commander threatened to kill my sisters one by one if I refused to pay the ransom they requested. I cannot express in words everything that went through my mind while being the focal point of this absurd trial on a dark night in the middle of the jungle. My emotions underwent subtle changes: from anger to fear, pain to anguish, revenge to bravery. I could feel the look of all those malnourished jackals preying on me, without having enough flesh to feed them all. Everything that ridiculous commander said was celebrated with laughter by these jackals. After a while, he offered me a drink of aguardiente (strong Colombian liquor). He ordered his men to tie me up again and return me to the cave blindfolded. He said they would be back in one or two days to take me to another locale. The six men who had originally sold me disappeared and another group of youths stayed on guard outside the cave. Everyone else had left.