Living In Fear
Witness

Living in fear

Witness meets some of the Colombian women fleeing the country’s civil war.

Watch part two

Director: Tara Sutton

Colombia’s civil war has been going on for over 40 years. Thousands have been killed and many civilians forced to flee their homes and become refugees.

Women in particular suffer extraordinary hardships. Many have had their children abducted for ransom, or their husbands killed, or both.

Journalist Tara Sutton travelled to Bogota, the capital city of eight million, to find some of these hidden women who are living in fear.

Like most of the women filmed, 24-year-old Esther, a mother of six, wanted to have her identity protected for fear of being recognised.


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Many women from rural Colombia have
fled to the capital, Bogota

She used to live on a farm where she was supported by her mother but fled to Bogota to escape the conflict.

With little money and no work, the only place she has found to live in with her children is a tiny room within a cardboard box warehouse.

Esther underwent surgery to sterilise herself, not wanting to expose any more children to the life that her and her family have been forced to live.

Laura lived in a village where the guerrillas were a constant presence.

They would take children from the women to force them to do their cooking and cleaning.

Laura’s two children were taken from her and she was told to stay or leave.

She chose to leave in the hope that she could one day go back to save them.

But for women like Laura and Esther, there are no guarantees.