A student finishes his assignment at a school in Patio Bonito during recess. During a bloody campaign by the paramilitary to seize control of the region from the FARC guerrillas in the mid-1980s, thousands were displaced and settled in a squatter camp on the outskirts of the city of Monteria. When the guerrillas attempted to reinfiltrate the area in 1996, a series of massacres caused a new exodus that is ongoing. In the past year, thousands of peasants in remote mountain communities have fled. More than 200 peasants have camped for seven months at a converted farmhouse in the town of Tierra Alta, about 50 miles south of Monteria.
Dozens sleep on the floor of a cleaned-out pig sty.
They are being cared for by the local church and aid workers. The government tells them it's safe now to go back to their communities. But they are too terrified. More than 100 children are fed at an improvised dining area under a thatched roof, seated in rows of school desks and chairs, the only furniture that could be salvaged after guerrillas burned the hamlet of El Diamante in late December. Nine people died in the attack.