National
Three-month-old Junior Alexis Patino, son of FARC rebel Deisy Garcia, sleeps next to his mother's weapon at a rebel camp in a demobilization zone in La Carmelita, in Colombia's southwestern Putumayo state on Feb. 28, 2017. Amid the makeshift tents and communal kitchens where Colombia's largest rebel army is preparing to lay down its weapons, a new sound is emerging: the cries of babies.
Fernando Vergara
AP
This combination of two photos of FARC rebel Mayerly Munoz shows her 32-weeks pregnant on Feb. 28, 2017 at a FARC camp inside a demobilization zone in La Carmelita in Colombia's Putumayo state, left, next to a photo of her taken last year on Aug. 16, 2016 at a jungle camp in the same area. Among the 7,000 guerrillas gathered at the demobilization zones across the country, 114 women are pregnant and 77 babies have been born recently, according to the government.
Fernando Vergara
AP
FARC rebel Sandra Saez plays with her four-month-old daughter Manuela inside their tent at a rebel camp in a demobilization zone in La Carmelita, in Colombia's southwestern Putumayo state on Feb. 28, 2017. The birth of babies at rebel camps and the arrival of older children who had been left with relatives during the conflict has injected a sense of optimism into camps where war-hardened rebels are beginning their transition to civilian life.
Fernando Vergara
AP
FARC rebel Vicente Pulecio plays with his nine-month-old son Dainer inside their tent at a rebel camp in a demobilization zone in La Carmelita, in Colombia's southwestern Putumayo state on Feb. 28, 2017. Pulecio's wife Jerly Suarez gave birth to their son shortly before the FARC began its march to one of the 26 demobilization zones.
Fernando Vergara
AP
FARC rebel Deisy Garcia makes her bed where her three-month-old son Junior Alexis rests at a rebel camp in a demobilization zone in La Carmelita, in Colombia's southwestern Putumayo state on Feb. 28, 2017. The FARC kept strict control over its fighters' reproductive rights and female guerrillas who became pregnant were forced to leave newborns with relatives or abort. But after the FARC and government reached an agreement to end the armed conflict, those rules loosened, resulting in a baby boom.
Fernando Vergara
AP
FARC rebel couple Jerly Suarez, left, and Vicente Pulecio walk to a cooking class with their nine-month-old son Dainer at a rebel camp in a demobilization zone in La Carmelita, in Colombia's southwestern Putumayo state on Feb. 28, 2017. "It wasn't seen as viable for us to have children, because why is someone going to have them when there are bullets flying around?" said Suarez, referring to the loosening of rules on bearing children after the rebel group and the government reached an agreement to end their armed conflict.
Fernando Vergara
AP
FARC rebel Marly Velasquez holds her 18-day-old daughter Andry Talia during an interview outside her tent at a demobilization zone in La Carmelita in the Colombia's southwestern state of Putumayo on Feb. 28, 2017. During times of war, constant confrontation with army soldiers and guard duties in jungle camps made raising children during the conflict difficult, if not impossible. Women were given steady supplies of contraceptives, and those who did get pregnant were presented with two options: leave the baby with the family members or end the pregnancy.
Fernando Vergara
AP
FARC rebel couple Jerly Suarez, right, and Vicente Pulecio eat lunch with their nine-month-old son Dainer inside their rebel camp tent within a demobilization zone in La Carmelita in Colombia's southwestern Putumayo state on Feb. 28, 2017. As the guerrilla army is preparing to lay down its weapons, a rebel baby boom has struck a chord among urban Colombians far removed from the conflict, a few of whom have mobilized to transport diapers and creams to the new mothers after seeing images of sweltering infants on cots in the rural encampments.
Fernando Vergara
AP
FARC rebel Sandra Saez holds her four-month-old daughter Manuela outside her tent at a rebel camp in a demobilization zone in La Carmelita, in Colombia's southwestern Putumayo state on Feb. 28, 2017. Maternity was always a hot topic of discussion within the rebel ranks, and the practice of forbidding female fighters from keeping their children at the camps flew in the face of the rebels’ claim that by enrolling female warriors they were freeing women from traditional gender roles that restricted women’s choices, and it angered many in this devoutly Roman Catholic country.
Fernando Vergara
AP
FARC rebel Sandra Saez changes the diaper on her four-month-old daughter Manuela inside her tent at a rebel camp in a demobilization zone in La Carmelita, in Colombia's southwestern Putumayo state on Feb. 28, 2017. In La Carmelita, one of the more built-up camps, rebels sleep under plastic tarps, there are no proper showers or clinics and a road to the main highway is so muddy it is hard to traverse except in all-terrain vehicles.
Fernando Vergara
AP
FARC rebel Jerly Suarez holds up her nine-month-old son Dainer inside her tent at a rebel camp in a demobilization zone in La Carmelita, in Colombia's southwestern Putumayo state on Feb. 28, 2017. In La Carmelita, where 500 guerrillas are expected to turn over their weapons by June 1, women speak of both the arduous conditions in which they have begun their new lives as mothers and their hopes for raising children in a time of peace.
Fernando Vergara
AP
FARC rebel Nelcy Rios cares for her nine-month-old daughter Naiha Sofia inside her tent at a rebel camp in a demobilization zone in La Carmelita, in Colombia's southwestern Putumayo state on Feb. 28, 2017. Some of the guerrilla mothers are giving birth in camps, but most at nearby hospitals. Many in Colombia are referring to the babies as the "children of peace."
Fernando Vergara
AP
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