Excerps of article written by Andrés Vargas Gómez, 1984
It was 1971… we were in a remote concentration camp somewhere near Melena del Sur. One of the political prisoners there was “Miguelito Cachimba” famous for his oddness, and his reputation of being half-crazy [that] followed him everywhere he went.
That night, close to nine o’clock, we heard sounds of a riot coming from a barrack close to the portion of the camp reserved for the common criminals. Afterward, we heard the call for the garrison.
When Miguelito Cachimba heard the garrison was coming, without realizing what was going on, he became frightened and began running towards the barbed wire fences encircling the camp. Miguelito reached the first line of barbed wire, easily scaled it and before the astonished eyes of everyone let himself down in the space between the two rows of barbed wire which were brightly lit by the floodlights. The guard posted on the closest tower ordered him to halt and, responding to the prisoners cries, Miguelito stopped, raised his arms and remained frozen in that position opposite the guard tower.
The officer in charge of the firing squad, Bero, who had seen him jump the fences, began running towards him, and while the prisoners shouted at the guard not to fire, that he was crazy, Bero’s voice could be heard over the prisoner’s cries. “Blow him away…!”
The volley was unexpected. Miguelito, riddled with bullets, leaped in a pirouette, inside his own shadow.
And so died Miguelito Cachimba, whose real name nobody remembered on a clear night, in a place without a soul.