Gerardo Ramírez said goodbye to his daughter on Sunday. Sergeant Ghislaine Karina Ramírez left her life in Melgar (Tolima), the municipality where she was born 35 years ago, to comply with military orders and enlist in the Army Battalion in Arauca. Father and daughter drank a few beers, packed and made sure their two sons were comfortable in the car that would take them to their destination 800 kilometers away. Juan Camilo and Angie Rocío, aged six and eight, were in bed with a tablet, a cellphone and the family dog. Gerardo was concerned: he remembers that in a telephone conversation with EL PAÍS he suggested that his daughter leave the children with him. “No, dad, you have to be with me, I’m mom,” she replied.
María Nancy Chitiva, Ghislaine’s mother, could not be there that Sunday. He had been with his daughter in Melgar for the past month while they awaited the transfer order to Arauca. But this weekend he had already planned to travel to Bogotá to accompany another daughter who is being treated for health problems. “Mom, I’m going now,” Ghislaine told her over the phone. “God bless her,” the mother replied. Nancy was uneasy about, among other things, the drive to a distant location and the heavy guerrilla presence. He comments to this newspaper that he asked his daughter if there was no other option and that the answer was negative: “No, mom, I have to go to the street because I can’t take it anymore, I’m financially ill not.” “
Ghislaine’s parents were in touch with their daughter until Monday. “It scares me because these streets are very lonely, papa. It’s all ugly, all gloomy,” the sergeant came to her father via voice message. Later, Gerardo and Nancy knew nothing else and spent a “huge” night. They only heard from their daughter after an army statement reported that the sergeant and her children may have been kidnapped by the National Liberation Army (ELN). Fear overwhelmed her. Not so much for Ghislaine, who had taken an anti-kidnapping course and is “strong”. Rather for the six-year-old Juan Camilo, who suffers from autism.
Gerardo Ramírez and María Nancy Chitiva, parents of Ghislaine Karina.Courtesy
“When he gets angry, he pushes, he bites. If he behaves like this towards another person, they may treat him badly,” the grandfather explained. “Suddenly he hits someone, throws him if you don’t let him do what he wants,” thought the grandmother. The child and his therapies were the main reason they worried about moving to Arauca, in contrast to the treatments Juan Camilo used to provide in Bogotá. The concern was so great that Gerardo had even suggested that his daughter ask for discharge from the army. “No, papa, it’s an order. I have to comply,” she had replied.
“We had several guerrilla takeovers in the city”
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Like millions of Colombians, the Ramírez have always lived with the armed conflict. Gerardo is from Puerto Rico (Caquetá) while Nancy is from Ataco (Tolima). Both lived in their town for several years, where they have a farm that they can no longer visit. “We had several guerrilla takeovers [de las FARC]. When there was one, it was time to run,” Gerardo recalls. “We had to go under the bed. The shots would go through the door and the wall and one would run away,” adds Nancy.
Ghislaine’s father says he is “used” to the violence in the country. “I’m not afraid to face the guerrillas. The only thing I fear is God,” he affirms, recalling that as a child he was repeatedly encouraged to join an armed group. In this context, an abduction is unsettling, but it’s not something totally alien to a reality that’s always been close. They insist the despair is more due to the youngest grandson’s acute vulnerability.
“I said him [a Juan Camilo]: “Hello dad, what else?”. He smiled, his expression changing. I started saying words so he could practice the letter r. Run, car, run,” the boy’s grandfather recalled while waiting for news. “Dad, a hug!” he always said. And he came cautiously and hugged me. In the last few days he asked me to pick him up and put his little face on my face and rub my cheek.
The Liberation
Ghislaine’s mother learned of her daughter’s release Friday afternoon, at the same time as the rest of the country. A brother sent him one of the photos showing the uniformed sergeant, the children and the dog, all surrounded by men and women in ELN scarves and officers from the Ombudsman’s office. Minutes later, Gerardo received a call from his daughter and was crying. “I’m Ghilandie Karina,” she said. “Hello, grandpa,” added Angie Rocío. They agreed that later they would talk better.
An army colonel called Nancy to tell her the news. “I thanked him, but I already knew it,” she says. By this time there was already joy in the home the family has in Melgar. An armed forces psychologist visited them and they began planning a trip to see the sergeant and the children again.
However, Nancy takes a moment to speak to this newspaper and dismisses the statements made earlier this morning by Defense Minister Iván Velásquez. He had blamed part of the responsibility for the kidnapping on the sergeant: “You [estaba] alone, with their children, in their vehicle, traveling, in an area where the ELN presence is known. It is an act of recklessness.” According to Ghislaine’s mother, the army offered no alternative air fare and no possibility of imprisonment. The sergeant did what she could, with a monthly salary of between 2 and 2.5 million pesos (about $475-600).
Clarinettist in the Presidential Guard
As a teenager, Ghilandie studied Karina Ramírez at a conservatory in Tolima. There she consolidated her passion for the clarinet, which accompanied her all the years in the army. Gerardo and Nancy relate that the sergeant spent several years in the Presidential Guard between a stint in Ibagué and another in Melgar. It was part of the band used by leaders to honor and celebrate visits by high-ranking foreign dignitaries.
The army, on the other hand, likes it, but it’s not a passion. When I was 18, that was the job opportunity, in an environment where it’s too difficult to pay for a college degree. “She [un día] We were surprised he told us he signed up. It was her decision and we respect her,” says Nancy. “He saw an opportunity to have a job, to have a source of income,” Gerardo recalls.
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