Birding for Peace, Part 2 (The Slaty Brushfinch)

After Diego's kidnapping in 2004 he never thought he would be working side by side with the same group who held him captive for 3 months. However, time heals and perspective is everything. With Diego's newly found friendships, he knows just how important it is to continue to "bird for peace." It was the moment he looked into the eyes of one of his former kidnappers that proved peace and forgiveness are possible, even in the most unlikely of circumstances.

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Transcript

This text may not be distributed or published online without documented or written permission from Shadow Clock Podcast. Transcripts are generated using a combination of human beings and AI software (i.e., speech recognition) and therefore may contain errors. Please reference the corresponding audio before quoting in print. Special thanks to Cindy Mahalic Higgerson, Spencer Masternak, Bruce Scivally, and Alec Jansen for making these transcriptions possible.

START OF EPISODE

Katie Mahalic

This is part two of Diego Calderón Franco's story, an account of what transpired for Diego, FARC members and Colombia as a whole in the years following his kidnaping. We recommend you listen to Part One of Diego's story before continuing with this episode.

Diego Calderón Franco

We go to his shop, uh, and there was like three or four more guys working there in the sewing machines, in the stitching machines. So we come in, and and in that moment, I recognize him. He comes to just greet us because he's the chief of the shop. And then, you know, I keep looking at his eyes and he's-he's looking at my eyes.

And I said, like, “Mate, remember me?”

Katie

When I reached out to Diego to talk to him about his kidnaping by the revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, otherwise known as the FARC, I had no idea that he would actually be telling me he was still in touch with the same people who took him back in 2004. But this time, the relationship between FARC soldiers and Diego was different.

They were working together with a shared objective: to build a bridge between ex-guerilla soldiers and the everyday, ordinary citizens of Colombia. I'm Katie Mahalic, and you're listening to “Shadow Clock.”

After being released by the FARC, Diego fell back into his normal life fairly quickly, and by 2007, he even started his own tourism company.

Diego

I came out of the kidnaping, I finished biology and I started to work on tourism and birdwatching tourism. So I kept breathing, thinking, you know, doing birds. And then I've been in the field, I've been seeing Colombia and going deeper into Colombia and seeing, you know, the campesinos and the people that help us, you know, finding the birds and everything.

Katie

What Diego means is that he hires local people to assist in his birdwatching tours, something that helps both himself and the communities he works within. His company creates much needed jobs, and in turn, Diego has access to trustworthy guides who know the lay of the land. If you remember from part one of Diego’s story, I mentioned that in 2016 the Colombian peace agreement was signed between the Colombian government and the FARC.

This agreement allowed ex-guerrilla members to assimilate back into society without prosecution or repercussions. When voting on whether or not the referendum should pass, the people of Colombia were nearly split 50/50 down the middle. The votes to pass the referendum actually failed. After massive months of public protests and much negotiating between the FARC and government officials, both for and against the peace deal, a peace agreement was finally signed.

However, agreement or not, the country stood divided, and Diego, who had never considered himself very politically engaged, began to feel drawn to the political divide, personally, both before the signing and after.

Diego

I've never been a very social person in the context of joining or volunteering big causes to help this church or this hospital or-or bringing food to people, that kind of stuff. But then 2016, when we have the possibility as a country to decide on voting as as, you know, the referendum for the peace deal in Colombia that we were signing with FARC… I got-I got super curious… I got, you know, a feeling that I've never felt before, like what each Colombian should be doing that is in his or her hands to-to just help, to just collaborate with the cause.

Katie

For Diego, his opportunity to collaborate with this cause all started after a conversation with a friend, Juan Fernando Diaz Nieto. Juan is a professor of biology EAFIT University in Medellin, and he told Diego that Colombia's government was starting a program called Expedición BIO. I'm going to have Diego explain to you what it is.

Diego

Expedición BIO is this program by the government that after we signed a peace deal with FARC, the government put some money to go and do biological expeditions, explorations to areas that were out of reach because of the conflict - areas that were with FARC guerrilla groups. So after we got all the guerrilla groups, almost all the guerrilla groups from far out of the field, the government said, okay, let's explore it, let's go and see what, you know, surprises we have in those areas.

Because one thing that is not a secret is that the conflict helped to conserve, to protect, to really keep those areas preserved in a way.

Katie

Meaning much of the land that had been taken over by guerrilla groups was untouched by cattle ranching and agriculture and virtually unexplored. And who better to teach about the land than former guerrilla members themselves who knew the terrain inside and out? It was over a beer that Juan told Diego he was actually heading one of these expeditions with former FARC soldiers.

The idea was to pair up former guerrilla members with the scientific community and explore the now assessable territory together.

Diego

I told a Juan, my friend like, man, you have to, you have to invite me. You know, I want to go. You know, you know that in all these... like this quest I've got in the last two years to really do something. This is- this is what I want to do. I want to go and work with FARC-guerrilla- ex-soldiers, ex-fighters together. What? What? What else could I do? I mean, like, I'm a victim, supposedly. I don't like that title because I think it’s a—it’s a title forever. I was a victim for a few days, but I don't consider myself today a victim. But anyways, I was kidnapped by these guys. And these guys, these guys have taken the brave decision to leave the guns, to leave the field, to leave the jungle and come out and try to reintegrate to society, into society.

The very best, most beautiful and profoundly honest thing I want to do is just go in and work with them. Teaching them a tiny bit, I know about birds and learning a lot about what they know about the forrest and the birds.

Katie

And so in the spring of 2017, a group of people made up of mostly Colombian citizens from all walks of life set out together to learn from one another.

Diego

So the beautiful thing is that this was like a social, cultural experiment to really show people that nowadays we can get this very, very to, let's say, distant parts of society that we’re not able to mix together a few years ago. And, nowadays, because we signed a peace deal with FARC, we have the privilege and we have the beautiful opportunity to make them work together and produce beautiful, in this case, biological information, you know, of an area that the guerrilla used to know very well because they used to live there and that their biologist were drooling to go and explore because was out-of-reach because of the conflict.

Ex-guerrilla fighters, local farmers, students from private, upscale, wealthy universities, from managing, researchers, professors, international people from the, uh, United Nations Verification Committee, etc., etc. We made this absolutely beautiful mixture of what is Colombia, a mixture of like all the tones of gray you have in between black and white - and we went just to have fun, to research the animals and the plants.

And of course, we did a neat job. We found a new palm for science, a new mouse, three new orchids, and all these are like ten or 20 new beetles and insects, blah, blah, blah, tons of stuff. But that's just accessory.

Katie

Of course, the new discoveries of the various species of plants and animals were amazing. But as Diego described the expedition, it became clear he meant what he said. The scientific discoveries were simply just secondary to what was unfolding between the people working together. He told me about a man named Juan Carlos and a girl named Sara, and his description of Juan Carlos and Sara interacting really struck me.

Diego

One day we got together an Ex-FARC soldier, Juan Carlos, “el Barbado,” that was actually a campesinos - peasant… 25 years ago, he decided to go into - into guerrilla because whatever. And we sat him with Sara. And Sara is a very young student from a rich university. And with all due respect and with all the love I have for Sara, she's just got all the privilege, all the opportunities just at her hands, and that's-that's okay. That's the life she-she-she didn't choose to have but she had it. But we sat her just next to Barbado, to chat about life, about dreams, about Colombian history, about family, about birds… just while they were waiting for birds and just getting the birds and measuring them and photographing them. This was the most beautiful thing in recent Colombian history, and we were part of it.

Katie

The interaction between Juan Carlos and Sara stuck with Diego, and it ignited a desire to reach out and find some of the former FARC-soldiers who had kidnapped him when he was a student.

Diego

So, I wanted a lot to visit them, the Ex-FARC soldiers from the Front 41 that kidnapped me. Just get to do what Sara did with one of these ex-guerrilla fighters just to talk about life, what's-what their view of the peace agreement, what are their hopes, what are their dreams, what-what-what they're doing. I mean, they were as victims of the conflict as I was.

It was their decision to go into FARC, but they were also . They didn't have a life. There was just suffering as much.

Katie

Through the work Diego was doing with Expedición BIO, he began to make connections with people who eventually helped him locate some of the former members of the Front 41, the specific FARC group who had  him.

Diego

So I went to visit these guys and I got to see two or three people that I was actually there  by.

Katie

If you remember from part one of Diego story, he mentioned several guards watched over him at night and during the day. Eileen was one of them, and when he saw her for the first time, 13 years after his kidnaping, he recognized her right away.

Diego

I went and I got into this camp where these guys are living. This is not a camp, really is like a small city. And I just knock on this door and here comes Eileen. Very, very same smile, very beautiful, sharp, shining eyes on 15 years ago. So she invites me to a little drink at her house. We sat, chat for a couple of hours.

I learned that she's managing the local projects of the, you know, groceries and vegetables production. She has a kid. She decided to have a kid, something that was absolutely beautiful from the peace process. All of these women have decided to have kids because they wanted that so much, and that's like- that anchors them to the to the grounds to the--to the territory that allows them to route in the territory, you know, to have kids.

I don't I don't particularly believe that, you know, overpopulation is a good thing. But all these kids of this baby boom by the FARC, I think it was beautiful, beautiful, just these people having a fucking life, having opportunities that they've never got before. Just beautiful. I mean, and Eileen was a minor when I was . She had no fucking idea what she was doing there in FARC.

She had joined just because it was the option that she saw. Like the guys that, you know, when they were camping in front of her house, and she was having a shitty life in her family. She was not being treated well and, you know, like probably so I mean, inter-family violence and stuff. And she just decided to run away from that.

And, when she decided to run away from that, the Colombian government, the Colombian state wasn't there. It was not police, it was not army, There was no church. There was no-no-no, you know, a nurse in a hospital. The only people that was there was FARC, and she joined FARC. And then 15 years later, I went to see her and she's absolutely in disbelief that, that I was  by her, by her group.

I was they're just willing to know if she's doing okay. So that's, you know, making this long story short, that's how I got to Omar. Because talking with everyone, I, you know, Omar came to the conversation, you know, “Oh sure, yeah, Omar I do remember in blah blah blah,” they said, “Yeah, Omar is not here in this camp. Omar is in another camp.”

Katie

If you remember, Omar was the FARC soldier who Diego described as the jungle man. The man that knew everything. He was the guy Diego often walked closely behind to observe how Omar moved throughout the forest while tracking and following the trails. He was also the soldier who was tasked with bringing Diego down the mountain, and back to freedom. Here's some pulled audio taken from the first episode in which Diego describes one of his last interactions with Omar.

Diego

So I'm sleeping in the barn in a little whatever shed with some blankets and sheets and stuff, It's okay. But then Omar comes to me and kind of knocks the door and comes in and says, “Hey, Diego, take it easy, mate. Remember like, you're free. You're going to be free the day after tomorrow. We're just taking you to freedom, It's okay.”

So I like-- like in a way, actually, like I felt him like an uncle coming to give me advice on a lovely way. Like, pretty, pretty touching, pretty powerful.

Katie

Diego asked some people in charge at Eileen's camp if they could help arrange a trip to the settlement where Omar was living. Upon arriving to Omar's village, those facilitating the visit took Diego to a shop.

Diego

We got to his shop, uh, and there was like three or four more guys working there in the sewing machines, in the sewing machines. So we come in, and in that moment, I recognize him. He comes to just greet us because he's the chief of the shop. And then you know, I keep looking at his eyes and he's-- he's looking at my eyes.

And I said, like, “Mate, remember me?”

And he - (Diego laughs) and he on this little sarcastic, but try try trying - I don't know what was he looking for, but he was probably, he was probably trying to get two more seconds of not facing this situation, that is a little uncomfortable anyways. He says, like, “No, I don't remember you.” But he's kind of a little cheeky laughing, you know, he's like, totally sarcastic.

And I'm like, “Come on, fucker, come on.” I told him like that you know, in Spanish, you know, like with a bad word, that-that is very normal in between us, that he's actually very close like words, bad words that I would use with my friends. I told him, come on, huevón, you, you have to remember me. And he just... he just kind of laughed and we just shake hands and have a big hug.

And-and then he showed us around the shop and then we just had coffee and sat for two hours to... to talk about about our life, about what's happened and about why, why, why he joined FARC, several years ago. I got to know his story. I never heard that when I was , off course, we never talk about that.

And-and-and just to be, just to hang out. So hang out with another cool chap. Another cool, cool neighbor, you know? That chap is just another basic Colombian campesino. He’s just a farmer, he’s just a peasant - that one day took the wrong decision, actually forced by the situation, and joined a guerrilla group and work with that guerrilla group for 10, 15, 20 years.

But now days, Omar is just, as any other basic Colombian, at the base of the chain, is just trying to survive. He's--he's the chief and they make clothing, they do uniforms, and they do stuff for hospitals, for kids. And Omar is the chief of that little shop.

Katie

I was curious, as trite as it sounds, if anyone had mentioned or attempted any kind of apology.

Katie (online talking w/ Diego)

I'm curious, did-did they feel like they needed to say they were sorry? Because it's clear... I sense in your energy you were not looking for an apology.

Diego

I wasn't looking for it. I wasn't looking for that. And I met three people that I was, you know, that I had met 50 years ago in the in the kidnaping. That's Omar, that's Eileen and Patricia, another lady that she was also in those days, when we were kidnapped. None of them told me that they were sorry. None of them felt the need to in that moment, at least, in that first meeting that we had.

And I wasn't looking for it, so I didn't even pay attention to it. But I think there is also a couple of things. One is the fact that a lot of these guys were trained a lot, mentally, when they were belonging to FARC, on why they were there. So some of them were really, really believing that story, you know, that excuse that FARC used to have for these actions and probably some of them they are sorry to have caused so much damage and so much pain and so much tears to-to the Colombian people and society in some of these specific cases, they could even think like, “Fuck, we were ordered to do it.”

I mean, you know, like they were receiving orders. They were following orders.

Katie

Just as a reminder, the ideology FARC soldiers were fighting for, or at least what they were told they were fighting for, was equity and social justice for the poor and to protect the people from government violence. Unfortunately, the actions they took to do so, were as unjust is what they were fighting against to begin with.

Katie (online talking w/ Diego)

So that's my understanding too, is I feel the way you tell the story, that it's almost like you're two victims. But I know you don't like this word, and I don't feel like you're a victim, but you're both experiencing.

Diego

Exactly.

Katie (online talking w/ Diego)

Katie 

-the same thing from different sides.

Diego

Exactly. All these guerrilla fighters have been victims of the conflict in Colombia. That's-that's simple. That’s simple. 99% of the guerrilla fighters come from rural areas or who are campesinos. They didn’t have options. They have either right wing paramilitary groups or in the older times of violence, they have the government just, you know, killing them and pressuring them. And the only escape that they found was joining FARC or any other guerrilla group.

But they are as victims, as the ones that were kidnap and the ones that were killed and just victims, more victims, of course, not talking about the commanders and I’m not talking about the big chiefs and all the-- all the big motherfuckers. But I'm telling you about the simple, basic Colombian chaps that were part of FARC.

You know, I'm a person that I think you don't need to carry stuff that is not useful to build. I've never been keeping and having bad feelings against FARC -against those guys that , those basic guerrilla fighters, they were receiving orders. They were following orders. So, you know, bad feelings and all this bad energy I think is just useless, you know. So one of the things is that I saw Omar and I didn't even need it to forgive him for being one of the guys that  me.

I was just so happy to learn and see that he’s... that he got away. That he's just having a new life and that he's blessing every second of his life that this war ended for him and for several other Colombians. And, he’s doing something to just earn his money and his life and he's just behaving like a, like a normal, you know, citizen. It’s just beautiful.

Katie

Diego took his experience of reconnecting with FARC and decided to do something powerful.

Diego

Something that I’ve being discovering is that birds are such a beautiful bridge to connect anyone and anything. So I-I made up this crazy thing that is this talk, this presentation that is named Birding with “FARC: How Birds Connect People.” And it's getting people uncomfortable and getting them away from their comfort zone and their bubbles with a lot of love.

And it's showing them that the reality is not white or black, that there is tons of grays.

Katie

He began touring college campuses and other organizations to share his story, giving listeners a perspective from someone who has seen both sides of the conflict up close and personal. His audiences are made up of people who voted for and against the peace agreement, and he challenges them to think about how people from vastly different backgrounds can work together to find peace.

Diego

I've sat people-- people that believe in the peace accord and voted yes and people that didn't believe in the peace accord and voted no. I have sat them in the same room to listen for one hour to this a story, that, basically, I was a student and I was  and, you know, like getting them in context. So in that half of the talk, the people that is with me is absolutely melted.

You know, it's like, “Oh, shit. This guy was , and blah blah blah.” The people that is not with me, the people that’s not with the peace agreement, the people that is probably reinforcing a little bit their views that this has been a shitty country that has been affected by the conflict and the bad guys, you know, they are probably reinforcing that a little bit.

Then from the middle of the talk onwards, I tell them like with tons of love, because this is what I do in this talk, is just hugging people, telling them my story - is like all these beautiful things that have been able to happen in Colombia after the peace deal.

Katie

And that's when Diego explains his participation with Expedición BIO and working side by side with former FARC members in the field, explaining birds and nature. Of course, Diego touches upon the awesome findings made during the expedition, such as the new species of beetles, orchids and mice. But clearly those discoveries are not the focus of Diego’s talk. It's the interpersonal discoveries Diego has made about how he views his country and its people that have motivated him to publicly speak out.

He shares the story of watching Sara, the student, and Juan Carlos, the ex-soldier connecting over birds about his own experiences working with ex-FARC on the expedition, about reconnecting with Eileen and Omar. He talks of the importance of forgiveness and the need for Colombians to work together to make the peace agreement a success. The process hasn't been easy, even though the agreement is signed and intact.

More than 200 former Ex-FARC soldiers who signed the peace deal have been killed by far right groups who oppose the peace agreement.

Diego

The two main challenges that we have are just preserving these people's lives and the other thing is just as a society, just offering them opportunities and getting people to understand that, you know, what they've been watching from the comfortability of their television is not the real Colombia. The real Colombia's deeper and-and - and it has real people with real feelings and real stories behind. And they are exactly equal to.. to all of us.

Katie

It's at the very end of his talk that Diego pulls up an image of a man working behind a sewing machine. The man has brown hair, a short buzzcut, a slight mustache and glasses. A tape measure hangs over his shoulders. The man is Omar.

Diego

Omar... Omar gave me a gift as a grand finale because Omar is the closing, very last slide of my talk.

Katie

The picture of Omar then fades into a video clip in which Omar and Diego sit side by side, an array of sewing machines in the background. Diego believes what Omar shares with him gets to the root of the Colombian conflict. Here's what Omar tells Diego.

Omar

(Omar speaks to Diego in Spanish)

Katie

Omar says he's grateful to someone that his front - the FARC Front-41,  years ago, when Omar was 30 something years old. This woman was held by his front for almost a year. During her captivity, she taught not just Omar, but 15 to 20 other guerrilla soldiers. She taught them how to read and write as well as other subjects, such as math and spelling.

She gave them an education that none of the soldiers had had access to before.

Omar

(Omar continues speaking in Spanish)

Katie

He says she was the first teacher he ever had in his entire life. Omar's story begs the question, what would Columbia look like if everyone had the same opportunities and privileges needed to better their lives? Another question, a more personal question from my point of view: What kind of conversations would we all have as Americans if we had the chance to go birding together?

Diego

So what happened is that after all this experience, of the - of the expedition, I have this story. I have this full circle. I - I, you know, I went to Perijá 15 years ago trying, starting to do a biological expedition that never happened because I was  by FARC. And then today, you know, in 2017, I had the chance to go again with FARC again, with FARC, to finish a biological expedition on very, very different terms.

And that's-- that's what's the new Colombia about.

Katie

Diego continues to speak to audiences about the importance of the peace accord and reconciliation. He asks listeners to consider the various shades of gray that have created the heartbreaking conflict Colombia has endured, and he does all of this by sharing what it means to find peace through his passion… birdwatching.

This episode of “Shadow Clock” was created by me. Assistant editing is by Alec Jansen. Post-production Audio is by Matt Sauro. Social Media is by Kelsey Hayes and Alec Jansen. Music is credited to Pond5 and Premium Beat. Content contributors, composers and individual song titles for each episode can be found on our website at shadow-clock.com.

Kate Cosgrove creates original illustrations for each episode of “Shadow Clock," which you can also see at shadow-clock.com. If you like the show, you can spread the word by telling someone else about “Shadow Clock,” and of course, by following us on social media. You can find us on Instagram, TikTok and Facebook at @Shadow Clock Podcast, on X, formerly known as Twitter at @ShadowClockPod and on YouTube at @Shadow Clock.

I personally want to express just how much it means every time you give us a click, a like, a subscribe or follow, and we love word of mouth endorsement, and I can't thank each and every one of you enough. Speaking of thanks, a special thanks goes out to Alejandro Vélez, Adam Gould, Gustavo Bravo, Alec Jansen, Kate Cosgrove, Matt Sauro, Josh Kobak, Johnny Massena, Bruce Scivally, Adam Zavaslak, Austin Krieg, Forest Hills, Northern High School in Michigan, Ariyan Dada, Duro Howard and Kelsey Hayes. Lastly, I want to thank Diego Calderón Franco for sharing his story with me. You can follow Diego and all his birding adventures on Instagram. We've included a link to his profile and bird tour company on our website. So if you find yourself in Colombia, I highly recommend you take his birding tour. I can't wait to sign up for mine.

And before we go, one more important thing. As we are an independent out-of-pocket podcast, creating this entire first season with zero funding, we very much welcome donations. You can make a donation on our website by going to shadow-clock.com and clicking on the donation button. Donating is one of the best ways you can help us continue to share these stories.

And with that, I'm Katie Mahalic. This is “Shadow Clock.”

END OF EPISODE

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