Since the day of his son’s capture, Moncayo, a teacher, has campaigned for his release. Nearly 12 years later, the Peace walker keeps on campaigning with his daughter who has become his right hand.

Gustavo Moncayo is not easy to deal with. And he is absolutely right. He says in a slow calm voice that he is not one for being photographed, if they want to take his picture, they may do so by campaigning with him for the release of the captured soldiers, among them his son, Pablo Moncayo.

Gustavo moves and his chains clink. He would like to be heading off now. His daughter, Yury Tatiana, in a reassuring voice, says “Tavo”, takes his hand and he starts to smile. The teacher says ok, but no more photos. Yury has saved the interview, she has become his communications adviser.

They are alike. Both have large dark eyes, but Yury’s shine while her father’s are tired. Both are keenly intelligent which means they consider carefully each question.Yury laughs but Gustavo hardly smiles. Yury, at 22, says she has to live more intensely than a young woman of her age but her father, who is 57, says his life is on hold until the day his son is freed.

In the park where the interview takes place, the breeze raises the dust and makes his tee-shirt, on which there is a printed photo of the Moncayo family, stick to his body. Some passers-by recognise him, shout his name and greet him, while others look at him with detachment and suspicion.

In this country of divisions, the campaign by this man and his family is as much acknowledged as it is unwelcome. Some people claim, in a trivial way, that he is against the government, when he is not an ally of the rebels, while others see him as a father in a hopeless situation, a man who, as the photographer who accompanied us was to say later, would deal with the devil himself so his son can come home.

To describe Yury and, of course, her father, we must begin with the event that gave rise to the before and after, the starting point of their tragedy, that was the 21st December 1997, at exactly 8 o’clock when the Moncayo family (the teacher, his wife, also a teacher, and his daughters) got a call to tell them that Mont Patascoy (Narino) where corporal Pablo Emilio Moncayo was serving in the army, had been captured by rebels.

At that time, the media were writing about a decrease in the number of kidnappings, while Gustavo could only cry and pray in the church in Sandoná (Narino), a little village hidden in the mountains. With tears in his eyes, Gustavo Moncayo remembers that from 21to 31 December he spent all the money he had on phone calls and taxis to go to Pasco to get news of his son. He has spent a lot more since then in other inquiries and went as far as Patascoy, in the hope of finding some signs of the fierce battle, but he found no trace of his son. Later he mortgaged his house and all his possessions to finance his campaign for the humanitarian exchange.

His daughter Yury now lives in Bogotá. She has a tiny room in a student house that she has decorated with posters about the native and Afro-Colombian communities. Despite her slight appearance and height of 1 metre 50, she shows an incredible force of character, which she uses not only to support her father but also to accompany him on each of his walks, and has quickly become his right hand in the campaign.

Now, for example, she’s organising an interview with a foreign journalist on her mobile phone, she also accompanies her father to meetings with other teachers and prepares a list of his future appointments. This administrative work goes on 24/7.

Since Moncayo became a national figure, when he decided to walk from his village to Bogota( a distance of 900 kms ) in 2007, Yury walked discreetly beside him. That is why she recalls, like something that happened a long time ago, that her father only took two pairs of pants with him, some shirts and underwear in his rucksack, when she decided to accompany him in what she imagined would be a short journey, that has continued until the present time, because she returned to her house in Sandona only once during these two years.

Yury tries to order her thoughts. She starts to tell about the tears her father wished to hide, then her mother’s silences, and the unwelcoming stillness of a tragedy. She tries to remember her brother and the months of uncertainty she has gone through until now. She recalls that her mother has hearing difficulties now, due to the many hours she spent with her ear to the radio, her father stopped singing and playing the guitar, her older and younger sisters were not able to enjoy their father’s presence during all this time…

She remembers the long walk, her sore feet, the people who accompanied them, arriving in Bogota, nights spent in a cold tent in Bolivar Square, the frustration, trips to Europe and different countries in Latin America (where they were asked to tell their story and speak about the humanitarian agreement), the second walk to Caracas, the presidents and famous people whom they met.

Moncayo has some photos of these occasions that he keeps in a small worn cartridge belt he takes out of his rucksack as if it were a precious thing. He looks at each picture and then he spreads them on the bed. He puts them in chronological order. His hair, once black, is white now.

He shows the photos that some people used to accuse him of being sympathetic to FARC and which were shown on YouTube, he tells how he went as far as Caguan to talk about his son and the other soldiers held prisoner. He does not hide anything, talks of threats and humiliations he has received. He stops at the Polaroid photo of Pablo Emilio. His son, thin in a camouflage uniform, is surrounded by trees. He was a young fellow, and now he is an adult, whom they saw last time in a ‘proof of life’ sent on 12 March 2008. He takes a plastic-coated sheet of paper. It’s a letter from his son in which he writes how much he loves them. And then he goes silent.

Yury is seated with her head against her father’s chest. Between them there’s a bond that is more than father and daughter, that of allies in the same cause. She says she does not want to abandon him, although she knows that she must go her own way, because she wants to study Political Science (but she has neither the time nor the finance); she has just been given the chance to study for four months abroad. This news is bitter sweet for her father, because he knows he will lose (at least temporarily) his ally, although he also knows that this will be a unique opportunity for his daughter.

Moncayo’s mobile rings again. They are expected in Villavicencio. There’s another journey for the “Peace Walker”, another day in this endless campaign. Gustavo Moncayo gets into the car, still wearing his chains. This time, Yury does not go with him and they each go their own way, at least for the time being.

For the family in Sandona, the waiting goes on. They talk to each other every day, but they don’t embrace. Life has stolen the years. Pablo Emilio remains in the forest, and his father walks ceaselessly on the roads, without reaching his objective…