"Tropics - Fruits of Hope" is the inspirational name former rebels in Colombia have chosen for their new venture. A premium coffee, "Fruits of Hope" is grown, harvested, and roasted by more than 1,000 guerrilla fighters who laid down their arms following the signing of a peace agreement between the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) and the government in 2016. Last week, a former rebel came to London to promote "Fruits of Hope" - a special edition marking the fifth anniversary of the peace agreement at the annual London Coffee Festival. The combatants-turned-coffee growers hope their latest product will be as successful as their "Spirit of Peace Ex Combatants," which was named "Best of the Best" at the Ernesto Illy International Coffee Award in 2019.
They are among almost 13,000 former Farc guerrillas who have joined the Colombian government's process of reincorporation into civilian society. Rather than hiding their past, many make a virtue of their unusual entry into the labor market by alluding to it in the names they give their products. One of the beers they brew is named "La Trocha", Spanish for the small paths used by the rebels to criss-cross the Colombian jungle. Clothes designed and made by one of their co-operatives were shown at the fashion show "Pazarela," a play on the Spanish words for peace (paz) and catwalk (pasarela). The man who has traveled from the coffee-growing Cauca region to London to promote "Fruits of Hope" also does not hide his past. "My name is Antonio Pardo," he says, automatically giving his nom de guerre. Asked why he still uses the alias instead of his family name, he explains that he no longer associates it with the conflict in which he fought for 10 years. "It's not a nom de guerre to me, it's a peace name now," he says, adding that most of his friends and former comrades would not recognize the name Jhon Jairo Moreno. "That's just the name on my ID and, of course, the one my family calls me." Mr. Pardo, who joined the Farc as an 18-year-old sociology student in the city of Cali, says that he and his fellow ex-combatants are 100% committed to peace now. He says that in his rebel cell, made up of 50 fighters, everyone embraced the peace process that put an end to the decades-long conflict in which 260,000 people were killed. "There came a point at which we recognized that the majority of people in our country wanted an end to the violence."
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