“Mom, I’m on my way. Save me some sancocho!”
Those have been the final phrases Otilia Ante, 78, heard from her son Alexander, 47, as he requested her to put aside a few of the hearty meat and corn stew that outlined his upbringing in southwestern Colombia.
At the time, Alexander was in neighboring Venezuela, navigating a posh route residence from Ukraine, the place he had fought in opposition to invading Russian forces.
Tragically, he and his Colombian comrade, Jose Medina, 36, by no means reached the ultimate leg of their lengthy journey again from the battlefield. They vanished on July 18 in Venezuela, a detailed ally of Russia, simply earlier than their connecting flight to Bogota.
The subsequent time their households noticed the boys was in a video launched by Russia’s FSB safety service on August 30, exhibiting them being led down a hall in jail garb with their fingers cuffed behind their backs earlier than being interrogated.
Moscow accuses the pair of performing as mercenaries, a criminal offense punishable in Russia by as much as 15 years in jail.
Jose’s spouse, Cielo Paz, stated seeing the photographs left her “heartbroken.”
Describing the anxious anticipate news about his destiny, she stated she and the couple’s seven-year-old daughter “feel as if we’re also imprisoned.”
Disillusionment
Jose and Alexander hail from Colombia’s southwestern Cauca division, the epicenter of a decades-old battle involving the Colombian military, right-wing paramilitaries, left-wing guerrillas, and drug gangs.
The pair met on the entrance traces in jap Ukraine, 11,000 kilometers (about 6,800 miles) from residence, in a battalion that included many foreigners, which suffered heavy losses.
After preventing by means of the grueling Ukrainian winter into spring, they requested to be discharged.
The males’s households deny they have been weapons for rent, insisting they have been recruited by the Ukrainian authorities and never a personal contractor.
Colombia has certainly one of Latin America’s largest armies and a rising pool of ex-soldiers performing as mercenaries.
About 50 Colombians have been killed in Ukraine for the reason that begin of the warfare in February 2022, in response to Colombian authorities figures.
Fighting to repay a mortgage
Jose and Alexander have been paid $3,000 a month to struggle alongside Ukrainian forces – virtually ten instances the fundamental wage of a Colombian soldier.
After 14 years within the military, Alexander, who’s married with a daughter, went to work as a cash-in-transit driver however was laid off after failing a watch check.
After months of unemployment, he determined to enlist once more, this time in Ukraine.
“His plan was to go there and earn enough money to get his mother out of this neighborhood,” Alexander’s brother Arbey informed Agence France-Presse (AFP), describing the district of Popayan as “very dangerous.”
He stated recruiters assured the Colombians they’d not be deployed on the entrance traces.
“I think they were deceived,” he stated.
Cheap flight by means of Venezuela
“My love, here we are in Caracas,” Jose wrote in his final WhatsApp message to Cielo from Caracas International Airport.
“He was on his way home,” she informed AFP at their Popayan residence, which Jose was planning to complete constructing along with his earnings.
Arbey stated Alexander and Jose selected to fly by means of Venezuela as a result of “the tickets were cheaper” and the pair have been unaware of developments within the more and more remoted Latin American state.
Venezuela was then within the midst of a high-stakes presidential marketing campaign. Incumbent strongman Nicolas Maduro claimed victory regardless of polling station outcomes printed by the opposition that appeared to point out a transparent win for his or her candidate.
Russia is certainly one of only a handful of nations to have acknowledged Maduro’s victory, resulting in hypothesis that the Venezuelan strongman handed over the Colombians as thanks.
Bogota final week issued its first assertion on the matter, saying it had requested info from Moscow about their “legal status, location, and health status.”
It added {that a} third Colombian, Miguel Angel Cardenas, was additionally being held, with out giving additional particulars.
The males have been assigned a lawyer, however their households say they’ve been unable to speak with their state-appointed defender.
Holding up an image of Jose in uniform, his daughter, Alison, informed AFP he meant “nearly everything” to her.
“Give him back to me,” she appealed.
Source: www.dailysabah.com