Colombian ex-guerrillas traded war for whitewater rafting. Now dissident rebels are forcing them out

Until recently, Caguán Expeditions had been one of the most inspiring stories to come out of Colombia’s 2016 peace deal.

More than 3,000 tourists from across the globe visited the ecotourism project to experience whitewater rafting and hiking excursions led by ex-combatants of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc).

The project grew to employ 25 ex-guerrillas who had laid down their arms as part of the peace agreement, boasted its own tourism agency to help people from Europe reach the remote southern rainforests of the Caguán region and spawned a competitive whitewater rafting team that competed all over the world.

Its success was held up as proof that the 7,000 ex-guerrillas who had put down their automatic rifles could find a new life outside of bloody conflict – and that Colombia could turn over a new chapter in its turbulent history.

But after seven years of success, the rebels-turned-tour guides are being forced to abandon their livelihoods after dissident guerrilla factions that refused to lay down their weapons have ordered them to pack up and leave.

“We are forced to leave the region, the space of reincorporation, our home, our beloved [camp], our motherland, the cradle of natural inspiration for our projects,” Caguán Expeditions said in a statement last week announcing their reluctant departure . “The reason for this decision is the impossibility of our stay and coexistence with the war … which after seven years is returning to our territory.”

Colombia’s 2016 peace deal between the government and Farc formally ended the longest-running war in the western hemisphere and was expected to bring sweeping change to the Andean nation, but the reality has been more complicated.

Successive governments have failed to fill the power vacuum left by the Farc in Colombia’s remote hinterland, leaving myriad new armed rebel groups to spring up, competing with each other for control of the lucrative cocaine trade.

Many ex-combatants in Miravalle, one of the camps built to house ex-Farc guerrillas and the birthplace of Caguán Expeditions, have been poached by nascent dissidents fronts, said 52-year-old Rodolfo Rodríguez, who still goes by the nom de guerre he used as a rebel fighter.

Rodríguez, who fought with the Farc for three decades and is the leader of the Miravalle camp, has already fled to protect his life.

The Caguán region is part of the Farc’s historic heartland, and is currently the subject of a fierce battle for control between two groups: the Central General Staff (EMC) and the Second Marquetalia.

“The dissidents say that we should be supporting either one group or the other and if you declare yourself neutral that’s not good enough. That’s why they have given us 40 days to leave,” Rodriguez said.

Related: Colombia’s ex-guerrillas: isolated, abandoned and living in fear

The ex-combatants are meeting with the government to explore where they could relocate to by the 25 July deadline, but so far they have had few answers, Rodriguez said.

“It’s painful to see that in Colombia there is no right to fight for peace. Seven-and-a-half years of work and dedication is being lost,” Rodriguez said.

“We are not just signatories on a piece of a paper,” he added. “We are men, women, children, families.”

As part of the peace deal, the Colombian government committed to help ex-combatants reassimilate into civilian life, but finding jobs for people who have spent most of their lives as armed nomads has proved difficult.

Some former guerrillas have used their deep knowledge of rural Colombia and unique skills to work as botanists, security guards and tour guides. Others have started a successful craft brewery.

But for every success story there are many more failures. Their lack of experience outside of war – and deep stigmatization after six decades of war – have made it hard for ex-guerrillas to find work or start their own businesses.

Around 1,500 guerrillas are estimated to have never put down their weapons, and many more have likely returned to arms .

Caguán Expeditions became one of the peace process’s biggest success stories, a travel agency that employed former combatants as guides and workers in hotels and shops. Its whitewater rafting team, Rowing for Peace, competed in international tournaments in Australia in 2019 and Italy in 2023 and was scheduled to participate in a competition later this year in Chile.

The project also set up a school for children to encourage future generations to take up the sport.

“The decision to exchange rifles for oars was precisely to navigate towards new horizons, for the construction of peace, reconciliation, the protection of nature, and thereby generate new opportunities,” the project said in its statement. “All these efforts and dreams are now threatened by the return of conflict to our region. We regret and find it difficult to understand this leap back to the past.”

Despite the adversity, the project has not given up on peace and will try to find a home, said co-founder Carlos Ariel García.

“We want to make this painful event visible but we also want to send a message of resilience and express the desire we have to sustain ourselves on a path of peace,” he said.