Interview with a Dutch FARC fighter

Radio Netherlands has broadcast a rare interview with a 32-year-old Dutch woman named Tanja Nijmeijer, who is thought to be the only non-Latin militant in Colombia’s FARC rebels.  In a journal of Nijmeijer’s, which was discovered in 2007, she complained about life as a guerillas and her words were used by the Colombian government to ...

By , a former associate editor at Foreign Policy.

Radio Netherlands has broadcast a rare interview with a 32-year-old Dutch woman named Tanja Nijmeijer, who is thought to be the only non-Latin militant in Colombia's FARC rebels. 

Radio Netherlands has broadcast a rare interview with a 32-year-old Dutch woman named Tanja Nijmeijer, who is thought to be the only non-Latin militant in Colombia’s FARC rebels. 

In a journal of Nijmeijer’s, which was discovered in 2007, she complained about life as a guerillas and her words were used by the Colombian government to portray the movement as weakened and demoralized. But in the new interview, which took place in Augustm the rebel known as "Holanda" by her comrades appears healthy and defiant and rejects the notion that she is being held against her will: 

"If the army and government of Colombia still think or say I was kidnapped let them come here and rescue me. We will meet them with AK47s, bazookas, mines, mortars, everything."

Nijmeijer first came to Colombia as a university student to teach English in a rural school. She reportedly began training with the FARC in 2003. 

Since the interview took place, the camp where Nijmeijer was interviewed was overrun by Colombian government troops but the journalist who found her believes that she is still alive.  

Joshua Keating was an associate editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @joshuakeating

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