For six months, Otilia Ante barely slept, a pain that started when her son disappeared. Or, rather, when Vladimir Putin kidnapped him.
It happened on July 18 last year, on the journey home of the Colombians after nine months of fighting for Kiev in Ukraine.
Doña Otilia, as she is known in the Colombian city of Popayán, had braced himself countless times for the possibility that her “Hijito” (her “little boy”) could be killed in the war.
She never thought the danger would be after he had put his arms, or that her son would be in the center of an international scandal, albeit that little attention has received. And that he would appear on a video, together with a countryman who speaks from a Russian prison.
Credit: RT
Together with a countryman, the son of Otilia Alexander is the first Ukrainian hunter who held in a third country that is not related to the war.
It is believed that the couple was torn away when they passed by the capital Caracas of Venezuela and delivered to Russia – a gift from Nicolás Maduro to Putin, one dictator for the other.
It also represents a clear warning from Moscow to foreign hunters who register to join the Kyiv case: no one is outside the reach of the Kremlin.
“I'm tired of life. I don't know what to do differently, always think of my son, “says Otilia De Telegraaf and buries her face in her hands.
“I don't know if he's cold, if he's hungry or how they treat him. I know nothing! It is so difficult … Sometimes I wish I could catch a plane and leave, but where could I go? “
On 46, Alexander dreamed of moving his mother from their troubled neighborhood.
Based on his experience with fighting guerrillas in the Colombian army, he flew to Ukraine and hired in 2023.
His mother said he never caused problems. He called every night and paid for his mother's medicine during his absence.
Every night Otilia Candles enlighten and prays to the saints asking for her son's return – Fermin Torrano
“He has no vices; He always looks forward to me, “says Otilia.
Unlike many of the soldiers in the 49th infantry battalion Karpatska Sich, Alexander survived, and in the summer of 2024 he came home.
He called his mother on Thursday, July 18, just a few hours before he started his return trip.
'Mamita, I will be home on Saturday. Hold a Sancho (a typical Colombian stew) for me, “he told her.
After he crossed over the land of Ukraine and flown to Madrid, he had three more flights – Caracas, Bogotá and Cali – before he finally came home.
But on Saturday without news passed. Sunday and Monday followed in silence. Then Tuesday arrived, and with that “the wait and the wait”.
Nine kilometers away from Otilia's house, another woman, Cielo Paz, was anxious in the same way. Her husband, José Aron Medina, had stopped answering her messages.
José Aron Medina's wife, Cielo Paz, with their young daughter, Samara – Fermin Torrano
He had sent a video of himself in Madrid with Alexander, followed hours later by a location pin from the Caracas airport in Venezuela.
He was planning to return to Popayán on time for the weekend to celebrate his 37th birthday. But José Aron never arrived and none of the loving SMS messages of his wife has once reached him.
And so the search began.
Missing person reports, appeal to the local council, the office of the public prosecutor and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs …
With almost no means, Otilia and her other children and Cielo and her brothers and sisters moved heaven and earth to find the couple. Official and unofficial investigations did not occur.
An officially missing personal report that describes the disappearance of Jose Aron – Fermin Torrano
Alexander's Ukrainian brigade only sent back his military passport, given his missing personal report – Fermin Torrano
When on August 30 last year, 43 days after Alexander and José Aron had disappeared, they appeared again.
Russia, today, the television channel controlled by Kremlin, broadcast a staged “interview”, revealing that the two former Colombian soldiers in Moscow were held. The head was “inevitable punishment”.
In the images, fascinated and flanked by two guards covered with Balaclava, José Aron comes from a cell.
Alexander vibrates and avoids the look of the camera and identifies itself.
The propaganda video, in which both men regret their time in Ukraine, offered a short flash of hope to their families.
Yes, they were in custody, looked weak and forced, but at least they lived.
But relief soon turned into a nightmare. It was the first and final proof of life that their families received.
Since then, none of the family has succeeded in contacting the men or to speak with the lawyer appointed by the court assigned by Russia. It is a voiceless, inescapable tunnel.
Why were these two Colombians held? What happened during the month and a half of their disappearance? How did they go from Caracas Airport to a prison in Moscow? And what could their abduction mean on the global stage?
Venezuela and Russia have maintained diplomatic silence. RT claims that Russian intelligence has caught the men without specifying where.
Interviewed by the Wall Street Journal, Héctor Arenas Neira, the Colombian ambassador in Russia, acknowledges that he does not know how they arrived in Moscow and avoids commenting on the violation of international law and Colombian sovereignty.
The only certainty is that Alexander and José Aron in Venezuela landed on a Plus Ultra Airline flight, which only operates with Latin -America, after breaking their contracts with the Ukrainian army.
Neither their arrest nor their extrajudicial transfer was once officially published, but it took place only a few days after the Venezuela fraudulent elections.
Maduro may have found a gift in these two Colombians to strengthen Russian support before anchoring himself in power.
Alexander and José Aron have now served for half a year “on pre -trial detention” and, according to Mr Neira, are confronted with a possible 12 to 18 years in prison for “mercenaries”.
“Russia can call them mercenaries, but they still have rights that need to be maintained. And it is even worse if they were not active fighters at the time, “explains a member of Congressman José Jaime Uscátegui's team, which legally supported the case from the start.
“You could claim that they had recorded their arms and just went home … In that case, international humanitarian law offers them special protection.”
Colombian authorities have not put pressure on Venezuela or Russia and the consul in Moscow has only made one visit in the past six months.
Their defense is treated by a public defender who does not speak Spanish – a lawyer who has been chosen by the very Russian state who kidnapped them thousands of kilometers from his jurisdiction, on accusation that are difficult to justify.
“Russia claims that they were imprisoned in Moscow,” Mr Neira tells the Telegraph. “How did they get to Moscow? Don't know.”
He says he is not going to investigate or complain. “I am not here to assess or criticize the Russian judicial device.”
According to the Geneva Treaty, international military volunteers in Ukraine should not be considered as mercenaries because they sign official contracts with KYIV's army and share both responsibilities and salaries with other regular soldiers.
What distinguishes the case of Alexander and José Aron is that they are the first fighters who have been held in a third country that is not related to the war.
This marks another red line that is crossed by Putin, and the message is clear from the Russian despot: no one is safe for the grip of the Kremlin.
What should be done? Mr. Uscátegui's team filed a complaint about forced deportation in December to the International Criminal Court.
This crime is notoriously difficult to prosecute, because the evidence requires systematic attacks on a specific civilian group.
To strengthen the case, the complaint includes other Colombians who disappeared after crossing to Venezuela.
Nevertheless, official indifference remains the biggest obstacle to building the political pressure required for their release.
Otilia Ante goes through every photo of her son she has – Fermin Torrano
“I would like to talk to that man Petro. I voted for him! “Otilia shouts, her voice vibrates while she talks about Gustavo Petro, the president of Colombia.
“He's here from here, from El Tambo. A rural boy, just like us. He was poor, like me, and God gave him the gift to become president, “she says.
Alexander's mother prays that one day he will visit the Cauca valley. She imagines that she wraps the Colombian flag “like a dress” around her and throw herself on his feet on the street.
José Aron's daughter Samara spends many hours alone and her hope to see her father take it again quickly – Fermin Torrano
Cielo is less optimistic. “If our president was another man … but he was once a guerrillero,” she sighs, as her daughter reaches her phone as she is struggling to deal with her father's loss.
“My husband and Alexander are retired Colombian soldiers; They fought for our country. Why won't he help them? Nevertheless, he sent a letter to request extradition for another Guerrillero. '
She refers to the American Colombian embassy plea for the release of Simón Trinidad, a former FARC commander who is a 60-year prison sentence in an American prison.
On November 25 last year, officials justified the request for calls for “humanitarian spirit” – the same rhetorical petro that was used to insist the Trump government to show dignity in the deportation of migrants.
But such calls were not made for Alexander or José Aron.
The Colombia diplomatic corps has stopped for six months. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs says nothing. Petro says nothing. No movements have been made to secure their freedom.
The overtures of the president for Russia are known. Initially, he refused to send weapons and helicopters from the Soviet era to Ukraine in exchange for American replacements, and he never condemned Putin's invasion.
His only protest came after a pizzeria attack in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatensk in the summer of 2023, where 13 people were killed and 61 injured – including three Colombian citizens: former politician and philosopher Sergio Jaramillo, writer and journalist Héctor Abad and reporter Catalina Wellz .
“There is an ideological agenda in this radical left government. They are not willing to take action, all in the name of neutrality, “says Mr. Uscátegui.
But 'to be honest, without justifying them, Colombia is already struggling with more than 13,000 violent murders, 4,000 disappearances, 90 slaughter and 138 murdered social leaders every year. That is the reality with which we are confronted at home when we think of that abroad ”.
