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men and women to the 15,000-plus juggernaut it is on its way to becoming. Captured records and documents show that the FARC now keeps carefu lly printed ledgers of finances related to kidnapping, execution, extortion and drug sa les. It is estimated that the FARC made US$200 million from kidnapping in the last five years and about US$500 million from taxing the drug trade in 1999 alone. It has even received visits from a founder of AOL and a former president of the New York Stock Exchange to discuss "investment opportunities." Where does the money go? A little gets splashed around rebel-held areas for effect. Banners are hung everywhere. The rebels all have crisp new uniforms with silly agrarian rubber boots. But it seems that a lot more money goes to the top. All the FARC leaders I met drove brand-new Toyota Land Cruisers without plates. These weren't military-spec clunkers but nicely outfitted luxury vehicles with shiny American- made M-16s and M-205 grenade launchers lying on the leather upholstery. The children of some of the top leaders go to school in Europe. The FARC has weapons, advanced communications equipment and much more. THE THEME PARK One day, our driver takes us into the countryside outside of San Vicente del Caguan. The road climbs up from the Caguan River and bumps and jolts through the rol ling green cattle country. Along the way, a random collection of hand-painted signs read, "Slow down. FARC-EP. " "Join the FARC-EP." "No more foreign intervention . FARC- EP." We cross two checkpoints, where young FARC soldiers peer inside. They check under the hood but not in the trunk. They don't give us a hard time since gringo journalists are still a rarity. We pass the Complaint Office for the FARC, a series of tents and temporary buildings on a hill a few miles out of town. The most common complaint is not land or payment disputes, it is desperate mothers and fathers looking for missing sons and daughters. After a long ride we get to the Thematic Center, the peace-talks headquarters paid for and built by the Colombian government. As we drive up, we are met by guards who look tough and want to know our business. There are large painted portraits of FARC leaders and banners that deal with splinter subjects like birth control and clean water. Inside the Center is a different world. New furniture, plastic lawn chairs, uniformed men sitting at desks with their rifles laid on top of paperwork, a large-screen TV, computers and the constant hum and babble of people making phone calls, typing and updating databases. Outside, generators and satellite dishes point towards the sky. Oddly, there is no air conditioning. The rebels don't like air cond itioning. A newly-built green building and amphitheater was designed to showcase the rebel point of view. Here the leaders of the FARC can sit for hours listening to endless speeches about ideas for the villages of the New Colombia. No debate is allowed, no questions, no sense of inquiry. Instead there are droning speeches on everything from safe tourist zones (where kidnapping and murder of fore igners is greatly discouraged) to financing microbusinesses. Clusters of students fawn over camouflaged rebels. Whenever a pack of Land Cruisers shows up, there is a crush towards whoever the celebrity is. Pens and papers go up for autographs. It is a combination of MTV's TRL and Va lley Forge. Some days you can catch Raul Reyes, the spokesperson for the FARC. Other days you might catch Commander Ivan Marquez, or the number two man of the FARC, Jorge Briceno (aka Mono Jojoy). Today is a magical day. All the leaders of the FARC are here and they are leaving the peace- talks building and heading straight for me. I walk into a green clutch of FARC officials that includes the big fish, 70- year-old Sureshot and Raul Reyes, and fire off some questions to get their attention. "How does a rebel group in Colombia control a third of the country and yet provide no social services, protection or infrastructure for the people under its control? Who is (continued on page 70) "IN COLOMBIA, THE LEADING CAUSE OF DEATH FOR YOUNG MALES IS LEAD POISONING: THE BULLET KIND." AMONG THE AMAZONS Some women join the FARC around the age of 15. It would be fair to say they join for the same basic motivations as the men: hunger, unemployment, desperation, ideology, adventure or survival. If you are not a member of the FARC in its controlled areas, things do not go well for you. If the FARC leaders are trying to impress you, they will say that 30 percent of their fighting force is made up of women. But somewhere between 5 and 10 percent seems to be the general ly accepted number. The leaders tend to have a higher percentage of females in their security detail. Some of the high profile leaders such as Sureshot, Mono Jojoy or Raul Reyes have al l-female bodyguard squads. Sureshot is known for not only having an eye for a beautiful woman but for being a natty tango dancer as well. On a less attractive level, many of these young female bodyguards are asked to kill innocent people or even their friends just to show they have what it takes to join the rebel group. Most will tell me without batting an eyelash how many men they have kil led. These are the same women who bring me coffee with a smile. Female fighters are not unique to Colombia. The PKK in Turkey has women a z o ::> "- co z Ir W III ~ .... Ir Vi o :I: ~ "- 37 fighters. There are special female batta lions among the mujahedin of the Philippines, Nepal, Iran and Palestine. The Lebanese, Tamils and Chechens have used female suicide bombers. Israeli women tra ined for combat, Russian women flew fighter planes and Eritrean women are credited with winning their war of liberation. So what is the big deal? Stateside, in some quarters, there is the unstated idea that men and women in close quarters create a sexual tension that is not conducive to war. Among the FARC, there is no sexual tension but a wi lling display of sexual attraction. The sexual use of the women is discussed not only matter of factly, but with an odd sense of acceptance, as if the women have no other purpose. But that is not the only thing that gives me a disturbing feeling. Every female FARC fighter I talk to shrugs off the killing of humans as inconsequential and yet exudes a direct sexual vibe while discussing this with me. It seems these women have been brainwashed. And I have not met one female FARC member over the age of 45. Maybe more disturbing is how many comely guerreros are trotted out for my camera. Diana is a big healthy woman with a beaming face and lustrous long black flowing hair. At 30 she is the oldest female rebel I have come across. Diana is also unusual in that she is used as a photo prop and is a commander of a column of fighters. She is both shy and eager and seems to love the attention. Unfrozen and giggly, she chatters away in a very flirtatious manner. She enjoys her role as poster rebel and freely admits the rules of FARCdom. She uses contraceptives so she can't get pregnant. She can't "associate" with civilians but she can have a FARC socia (partner) if she wants. She can never quit the FARC unless somehow she gets pregnant. What if her socia is sent away to fight? Then she'll just find another. I push a little more. "Can you have more than one socia?" I ask her. "Of course!" She laughs at my priggishness.