Pillars of Bogotá capitalism: ex-Marxists
BOGOTÁ Dressed in a silk tie and tailored navy blue suit, Antonio Sanguino looks every bit the chief executive. His cellphone chirps endlessly, the callers eager to make business propositions. With three bodyguards at his side, he dashes from one end of Bogotá to the other attending one meeting after another.
.
From offices in an elegant Tudor home in one of Bogotá's grand old neighborhoods, Sanguino oversees what in Colombia could be called an empire - a 35-room hotel in the city center, a national construction operation that has built 600 homes, an agricultural brokerage company and other ventures. Other deals are in the works, from a string of Internet cafés in Costa Rica to a partnership with a factory that makes light fixtures for export.
.
It is the kind of work that may seem sharply out of the ordinary for Sanguino and the board members of Nuevo Arco Iris, or the New Rainbow. They are, after all, former Marxist guerrillas.
.
These are men and women who once plotted to overthrow the state. Now they embrace capitalism, or at least Arco Iris's quirky, socially minded model, which channels money from business enterprises into social programs.
.
"We believe the market can generate wealth, which benefits people in the long run," said Sanguino, 37, who with his brash self-confidence looks more like the American television character Tony Soprano than the iconic revolutionary he once emulated, Che Guevara.
.
"Our ideas are the inverse of George Soros's," said Sanguino, speaking of the billionaire philanthropist. "He discovered the satisfaction of social work after accumulating riches. We discovered the abundance of the market after preaching socialism."
.
The survival of Arco Iris, along with similar but smaller programs run by former rebels, is crucial in a country that is trying, through a two-pronged strategy of military offensives and disarmament negotiations, to sideline three armed insurgencies.
.
Though Colombia is far from achieving peace, the rigors of civil war prompted 1,739 rebels to desert last year, up from 1,307 in 2002. The government has entered negotiations with a rightist paramilitary organization, the enemies of the Marxist rebels, which potentially could disarm 15,000 fighters or more by the end of next year.
.
The throngs of newly disarmed former combatants are clearly good news for the conservative government of President Alvaro Uribe, who won the 2002 election by pledging to weaken rebel movements that have been waging war here since the 1960's.
.
But the former guerrillas have needs in building new lives as members of society, and making the transition from the mountains to the cities is a process fraught with risk. Many rebels wind up jobless and homeless. Those who leave Colombia's largest rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, are seen as turncoats and are at times hunted and killed.
.
Even at Arco Iris, though firmly established, the obstacles are all too clear.
.
"To run a company, oh, my friend, it's not easy at all," said Rodrigo Osorno, a former rebel who is now a board member of Arco Iris. "Building peace is much harder than making war."
.
In this business like no other, threats from enemies are constant. About 15 of Arco Iris's employees have been killed in recent years, probably by rightist paramilitary gunmen, forcing the group to close a farm in one state and all its operations in another.
.
The danger may be mitigated by 40 bodyguards, all former rebels who are employed by Colombia's secret police to protect Arco Iris employees. "The FARC see us as traitors; the paramilitaries see us as part of a larger guerrilla strategy; the military has us in their files; businessmen lack confidence in us," Sanguino said. "It has been a fight to win space in society, to win respect."
.
Simply carving out a niche was not what many of Arco Iris's managers had in mind when they were members of the National Liberation Army, a Cuban-inspired rebel group. Many were former students steeped in radical thought. The ELN, as the rebel group is known from its Spanish name, Ejército Liberacíon Nacional, offered them a vehicle for violently reordering Colombian society. But after Soviet Communism collapsed, a dissident faction of the ELN split off. About 800 former rebels, with Sanguino leading the way, disarmed a decade ago. Bankrolled by the government, Arco Iris was founded to coordinate the integration of guerrillas into society.
.
Arco Iris is not exactly a company. It works more like a foundation, with nonprofit status, though it is apparently breaking even. It depends heavily on money from the governments of various countries, including Spain and the Netherlands, as well as the European Community and contracts with organizations like the UN Development Program.
.
Arco Iris stresses that its focus is not to make money but to finance programs, from training human rights workers to running a crop substitution program for coca farmers. About 200 people have permanent jobs in Arco Iris's programs and at the organization's offices around the country; of those, about 115 are former rebels. But Arco Iris is also very much like a company. It operates with a seven-member board. It is guided by the standard business model.
.
"We are nonprofit, but we also do not want to go broke," Sanguino said. To survive, he says, Arco Iris has to wheel and deal like any other enterprise.
.
The New York Times BOGOTÁ Dressed in a silk tie and tailored navy blue suit, Antonio Sanguino looks every bit the chief executive. His cellphone chirps endlessly, the callers eager to make business propositions. With three bodyguards at his side, he dashes from one end of Bogotá to the other attending one meeting after another.
.
From offices in an elegant Tudor home in one of Bogotá's grand old neighborhoods, Sanguino oversees what in Colombia could be called an empire - a 35-room hotel in the city center, a national construction operation that has built 600 homes, an agricultural brokerage company and other ventures. Other deals are in the works, from a string of Internet cafés in Costa Rica to a partnership with a factory that makes light fixtures for export.
.
It is the kind of work that may seem sharply out of the ordinary for Sanguino and the board members of Nuevo Arco Iris, or the New Rainbow. They are, after all, former Marxist guerrillas.
.
These are men and women who once plotted to overthrow the state. Now they embrace capitalism, or at least Arco Iris's quirky, socially minded model, which channels money from business enterprises into social programs.
.
"We believe the market can generate wealth, which benefits people in the long run," said Sanguino, 37, who with his brash self-confidence looks more like the American television character Tony Soprano than the iconic revolutionary he once emulated, Che Guevara.
.
"Our ideas are the inverse of George Soros's," said Sanguino, speaking of the billionaire philanthropist. "He discovered the satisfaction of social work after accumulating riches. We discovered the abundance of the market after preaching socialism."
.
The survival of Arco Iris, along with similar but smaller programs run by former rebels, is crucial in a country that is trying, through a two-pronged strategy of military offensives and disarmament negotiations, to sideline three armed insurgencies.
.
Though Colombia is far from achieving peace, the rigors of civil war prompted 1,739 rebels to desert last year, up from 1,307 in 2002. The government has entered negotiations with a rightist paramilitary organization, the enemies of the Marxist rebels, which potentially could disarm 15,000 fighters or more by the end of next year.
.
The throngs of newly disarmed former combatants are clearly good news for the conservative government of President Alvaro Uribe, who won the 2002 election by pledging to weaken rebel movements that have been waging war here since the 1960's.
.
But the former guerrillas have needs in building new lives as members of society, and making the transition from the mountains to the cities is a process fraught with risk. Many rebels wind up jobless and homeless. Those who leave Colombia's largest rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, are seen as turncoats and are at times hunted and killed.
.
Even at Arco Iris, though firmly established, the obstacles are all too clear.
.
"To run a company, oh, my friend, it's not easy at all," said Rodrigo Osorno, a former rebel who is now a board member of Arco Iris. "Building peace is much harder than making war."
.
In this business like no other, threats from enemies are constant. About 15 of Arco Iris's employees have been killed in recent years, probably by rightist paramilitary gunmen, forcing the group to close a farm in one state and all its operations in another.
.
The danger may be mitigated by 40 bodyguards, all former rebels who are employed by Colombia's secret police to protect Arco Iris employees. "The FARC see us as traitors; the paramilitaries see us as part of a larger guerrilla strategy; the military has us in their files; businessmen lack confidence in us," Sanguino said. "It has been a fight to win space in society, to win respect."
.
Simply carving out a niche was not what many of Arco Iris's managers had in mind when they were members of the National Liberation Army, a Cuban-inspired rebel group. Many were former students steeped in radical thought. The ELN, as the rebel group is known from its Spanish name, Ejército Liberacíon Nacional, offered them a vehicle for violently reordering Colombian society. But after Soviet Communism collapsed, a dissident faction of the ELN split off. About 800 former rebels, with Sanguino leading the way, disarmed a decade ago. Bankrolled by the government, Arco Iris was founded to coordinate the integration of guerrillas into society.
.
Arco Iris is not exactly a company. It works more like a foundation, with nonprofit status, though it is apparently breaking even. It depends heavily on money from the governments of various countries, including Spain and the Netherlands, as well as the European Community and contracts with organizations like the UN Development Program.
.
Arco Iris stresses that its focus is not to make money but to finance programs, from training human rights workers to running a crop substitution program for coca farmers. About 200 people have permanent jobs in Arco Iris's programs and at the organization's offices around the country; of those, about 115 are former rebels. But Arco Iris is also very much like a company. It operates with a seven-member board. It is guided by the standard business model.
.
"We are nonprofit, but we also do not want to go broke," Sanguino said. To survive, he says, Arco Iris has to wheel and deal like any other enterprise.
.
The New York Times BOGOTÁ Dressed in a silk tie and tailored navy blue suit, Antonio Sanguino looks every bit the chief executive. His cellphone chirps endlessly, the callers eager to make business propositions. With three bodyguards at his side, he dashes from one end of Bogotá to the other attending one meeting after another.
.
From offices in an elegant Tudor home in one of Bogotá's grand old neighborhoods, Sanguino oversees what in Colombia could be called an empire - a 35-room hotel in the city center, a national construction operation that has built 600 homes, an agricultural brokerage company and other ventures. Other deals are in the works, from a string of Internet cafés in Costa Rica to a partnership with a factory that makes light fixtures for export.
.
It is the kind of work that may seem sharply out of the ordinary for Sanguino and the board members of Nuevo Arco Iris, or the New Rainbow. They are, after all, former Marxist guerrillas.
.
These are men and women who once plotted to overthrow the state. Now they embrace capitalism, or at least Arco Iris's quirky, socially minded model, which channels money from business enterprises into social programs.
.
"We believe the market can generate wealth, which benefits people in the long run," said Sanguino, 37, who with his brash self-confidence looks more like the American television character Tony Soprano than the iconic revolutionary he once emulated, Che Guevara.
.
"Our ideas are the inverse of George Soros's," said Sanguino, speaking of the billionaire philanthropist. "He discovered the satisfaction of social work after accumulating riches. We discovered the abundance of the market after preaching socialism."
.
The survival of Arco Iris, along with similar but smaller programs run by former rebels, is crucial in a country that is trying, through a two-pronged strategy of military offensives and disarmament negotiations, to sideline three armed insurgencies.
.
Though Colombia is far from achieving peace, the rigors of civil war prompted 1,739 rebels to desert last year, up from 1,307 in 2002. The government has entered negotiations with a rightist paramilitary organization, the enemies of the Marxist rebels, which potentially could disarm 15,000 fighters or more by the end of next year.
.
The throngs of newly disarmed former combatants are clearly good news for the conservative government of President Alvaro Uribe, who won the 2002 election by pledging to weaken rebel movements that have been waging war here since the 1960's.
.
But the former guerrillas have needs in building new lives as members of society, and making the transition from the mountains to the cities is a process fraught with risk. Many rebels wind up jobless and homeless. Those who leave Colombia's largest rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, are seen as turncoats and are at times hunted and killed.
.
Even at Arco Iris, though firmly established, the obstacles are all too clear.
.
"To run a company, oh, my friend, it's not easy at all," said Rodrigo Osorno, a former rebel who is now a board member of Arco Iris. "Building peace is much harder than making war."
.
In this business like no other, threats from enemies are constant. About 15 of Arco Iris's employees have been killed in recent years, probably by rightist paramilitary gunmen, forcing the group to close a farm in one state and all its operations in another.
.
The danger may be mitigated by 40 bodyguards, all former rebels who are employed by Colombia's secret police to protect Arco Iris employees. "The FARC see us as traitors; the paramilitaries see us as part of a larger guerrilla strategy; the military has us in their files; businessmen lack confidence in us," Sanguino said. "It has been a fight to win space in society, to win respect."
.
Simply carving out a niche was not what many of Arco Iris's managers had in mind when they were members of the National Liberation Army, a Cuban-inspired rebel group. Many were former students steeped in radical thought. The ELN, as the rebel group is known from its Spanish name, Ejército Liberacíon Nacional, offered them a vehicle for violently reordering Colombian society. But after Soviet Communism collapsed, a dissident faction of the ELN split off. About 800 former rebels, with Sanguino leading the way, disarmed a decade ago. Bankrolled by the government, Arco Iris was founded to coordinate the integration of guerrillas into society.
.
Arco Iris is not exactly a company. It works more like a foundation, with nonprofit status, though it is apparently breaking even. It depends heavily on money from the governments of various countries, including Spain and the Netherlands, as well as the European Community and contracts with organizations like the UN Development Program.
.
Arco Iris stresses that its focus is not to make money but to finance programs, from training human rights workers to running a crop substitution program for coca farmers. About 200 people have permanent jobs in Arco Iris's programs and at the organization's offices around the country; of those, about 115 are former rebels. But Arco Iris is also very much like a company. It operates with a seven-member board. It is guided by the standard business model.
.
"We are nonprofit, but we also do not want to go broke," Sanguino said. To survive, he says, Arco Iris has to wheel and deal like any other enterprise.
.
The New York Times BOGOTÁ Dressed in a silk tie and tailored navy blue suit, Antonio Sanguino looks every bit the chief executive. His cellphone chirps endlessly, the callers eager to make business propositions. With three bodyguards at his side, he dashes from one end of Bogotá to the other attending one meeting after another.
.
From offices in an elegant Tudor home in one of Bogotá's grand old neighborhoods, Sanguino oversees what in Colombia could be called an empire - a 35-room hotel in the city center, a national construction operation that has built 600 homes, an agricultural brokerage company and other ventures. Other deals are in the works, from a string of Internet cafés in Costa Rica to a partnership with a factory that makes light fixtures for export.
.
It is the kind of work that may seem sharply out of the ordinary for Sanguino and the board members of Nuevo Arco Iris, or the New Rainbow. They are, after all, former Marxist guerrillas.
.
These are men and women who once plotted to overthrow the state. Now they embrace capitalism, or at least Arco Iris's quirky, socially minded model, which channels money from business enterprises into social programs.
.
"We believe the market can generate wealth, which benefits people in the long run," said Sanguino, 37, who with his brash self-confidence looks more like the American television character Tony Soprano than the iconic revolutionary he once emulated, Che Guevara.
.
"Our ideas are the inverse of George Soros's," said Sanguino, speaking of the billionaire philanthropist. "He discovered the satisfaction of social work after accumulating riches. We discovered the abundance of the market after preaching socialism."
.
The survival of Arco Iris, along with similar but smaller programs run by former rebels, is crucial in a country that is trying, through a two-pronged strategy of military offensives and disarmament negotiations, to sideline three armed insurgencies.
.
Though Colombia is far from achieving peace, the rigors of civil war prompted 1,739 rebels to desert last year, up from 1,307 in 2002. The government has entered negotiations with a rightist paramilitary organization, the enemies of the Marxist rebels, which potentially could disarm 15,000 fighters or more by the end of next year.
.
The throngs of newly disarmed former combatants are clearly good news for the conservative government of President Alvaro Uribe, who won the 2002 election by pledging to weaken rebel movements that have been waging war here since the 1960's.
.
But the former guerrillas have needs in building new lives as members of society, and making the transition from the mountains to the cities is a process fraught with risk. Many rebels wind up jobless and homeless. Those who leave Colombia's largest rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, are seen as turncoats and are at times hunted and killed.
.
Even at Arco Iris, though firmly established, the obstacles are all too clear.
.
"To run a company, oh, my friend, it's not easy at all," said Rodrigo Osorno, a former rebel who is now a board member of Arco Iris. "Building peace is much harder than making war."
.
In this business like no other, threats from enemies are constant. About 15 of Arco Iris's employees have been killed in recent years, probably by rightist paramilitary gunmen, forcing the group to close a farm in one state and all its operations in another.
.
The danger may be mitigated by 40 bodyguards, all former rebels who are employed by Colombia's secret police to protect Arco Iris employees. "The FARC see us as traitors; the paramilitaries see us as part of a larger guerrilla strategy; the military has us in their files; businessmen lack confidence in us," Sanguino said. "It has been a fight to win space in society, to win respect."
.
Simply carving out a niche was not what many of Arco Iris's managers had in mind when they were members of the National Liberation Army, a Cuban-inspired rebel group. Many were former students steeped in radical thought. The ELN, as the rebel group is known from its Spanish name, Ejército Liberacíon Nacional, offered them a vehicle for violently reordering Colombian society. But after Soviet Communism collapsed, a dissident faction of the ELN split off. About 800 former rebels, with Sanguino leading the way, disarmed a decade ago. Bankrolled by the government, Arco Iris was founded to coordinate the integration of guerrillas into society.
.
Arco Iris is not exactly a company. It works more like a foundation, with nonprofit status, though it is apparently breaking even. It depends heavily on money from the governments of various countries, including Spain and the Netherlands, as well as the European Community and contracts with organizations like the UN Development Program.
.
Arco Iris stresses that its focus is not to make money but to finance programs, from training human rights workers to running a crop substitution program for coca farmers. About 200 people have permanent jobs in Arco Iris's programs and at the organization's offices around the country; of those, about 115 are former rebels. But Arco Iris is also very much like a company. It operates with a seven-member board. It is guided by the standard business model.
.
"We are nonprofit, but we also do not want to go broke," Sanguino said. To survive, he says, Arco Iris has to wheel and deal like any other enterprise.
.
The New York Times BOGOTÁ Dressed in a silk tie and tailored navy blue suit, Antonio Sanguino looks every bit the chief executive. His cellphone chirps endlessly, the callers eager to make business propositions. With three bodyguards at his side, he dashes from one end of Bogotá to the other attending one meeting after another.
.
From offices in an elegant Tudor home in one of Bogotá's grand old neighborhoods, Sanguino oversees what in Colombia could be called an empire - a 35-room hotel in the city center, a national construction operation that has built 600 homes, an agricultural brokerage company and other ventures. Other deals are in the works, from a string of Internet cafés in Costa Rica to a partnership with a factory that makes light fixtures for export.
.
It is the kind of work that may seem sharply out of the ordinary for Sanguino and the board members of Nuevo Arco Iris, or the New Rainbow. They are, after all, former Marxist guerrillas.
.
These are men and women who once plotted to overthrow the state. Now they embrace capitalism, or at least Arco Iris's quirky, socially minded model, which channels money from business enterprises into social programs.
.
"We believe the market can generate wealth, which benefits people in the long run," said Sanguino, 37, who with his brash self-confidence looks more like the American television character Tony Soprano than the iconic revolutionary he once emulated, Che Guevara.
.
"Our ideas are the inverse of George Soros's," said Sanguino, speaking of the billionaire philanthropist. "He discovered the satisfaction of social work after accumulating riches. We discovered the abundance of the market after preaching socialism."
.
The survival of Arco Iris, along with similar but smaller programs run by former rebels, is crucial in a country that is trying, through a two-pronged strategy of military offensives and disarmament negotiations, to sideline three armed insurgencies.
.
Though Colombia is far from achieving peace, the rigors of civil war prompted 1,739 rebels to desert last year, up from 1,307 in 2002. The government has entered negotiations with a rightist paramilitary organization, the enemies of the Marxist rebels, which potentially could disarm 15,000 fighters or more by the end of next year.
.
The throngs of newly disarmed former combatants are clearly good news for the conservative government of President Alvaro Uribe, who won the 2002 election by pledging to weaken rebel movements that have been waging war here since the 1960's.
.
But the former guerrillas have needs in building new lives as members of society, and making the transition from the mountains to the cities is a process fraught with risk. Many rebels wind up jobless and homeless. Those who leave Colombia's largest rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, are seen as turncoats and are at times hunted and killed.
.
Even at Arco Iris, though firmly established, the obstacles are all too clear.
.
"To run a company, oh, my friend, it's not easy at all," said Rodrigo Osorno, a former rebel who is now a board member of Arco Iris. "Building peace is much harder than making war."
.
In this business like no other, threats from enemies are constant. About 15 of Arco Iris's employees have been killed in recent years, probably by rightist paramilitary gunmen, forcing the group to close a farm in one state and all its operations in another.
.
The danger may be mitigated by 40 bodyguards, all former rebels who are employed by Colombia's secret police to protect Arco Iris employees. "The FARC see us as traitors; the paramilitaries see us as part of a larger guerrilla strategy; the military has us in their files; businessmen lack confidence in us," Sanguino said. "It has been a fight to win space in society, to win respect."
.
Simply carving out a niche was not what many of Arco Iris's managers had in mind when they were members of the National Liberation Army, a Cuban-inspired rebel group. Many were former students steeped in radical thought. The ELN, as the rebel group is known from its Spanish name, Ejército Liberacíon Nacional, offered them a vehicle for violently reordering Colombian society. But after Soviet Communism collapsed, a dissident faction of the ELN split off. About 800 former rebels, with Sanguino leading the way, disarmed a decade ago. Bankrolled by the government, Arco Iris was founded to coordinate the integration of guerrillas into society.
.
Arco Iris is not exactly a company. It works more like a foundation, with nonprofit status, though it is apparently breaking even. It depends heavily on money from the governments of various countries, including Spain and the Netherlands, as well as the European Community and contracts with organizations like the UN Development Program.
.
Arco Iris stresses that its focus is not to make money but to finance programs, from training human rights workers to running a crop substitution program for coca farmers. About 200 people have permanent jobs in Arco Iris's programs and at the organization's offices around the country; of those, about 115 are former rebels. But Arco Iris is also very much like a company. It operates with a seven-member board. It is guided by the standard business model.
.
"We are nonprofit, but we also do not want to go broke," Sanguino said. To survive, he says, Arco Iris has to wheel and deal like any other enterprise.
.
The New York Times BOGOTÁ Dressed in a silk tie and tailored navy blue suit, Antonio Sanguino looks every bit the chief executive. His cellphone chirps endlessly, the callers eager to make business propositions. With three bodyguards at his side, he dashes from one end of Bogotá to the other attending one meeting after another.
.
From offices in an elegant Tudor home in one of Bogotá's grand old neighborhoods, Sanguino oversees what in Colombia could be called an empire - a 35-room hotel in the city center, a national construction operation that has built 600 homes, an agricultural brokerage company and other ventures. Other deals are in the works, from a string of Internet cafés in Costa Rica to a partnership with a factory that makes light fixtures for export.
.
It is the kind of work that may seem sharply out of the ordinary for Sanguino and the board members of Nuevo Arco Iris, or the New Rainbow. They are, after all, former Marxist guerrillas.
.
These are men and women who once plotted to overthrow the state. Now they embrace capitalism, or at least Arco Iris's quirky, socially minded model, which channels money from business enterprises into social programs.
.
"We believe the market can generate wealth, which benefits people in the long run," said Sanguino, 37, who with his brash self-confidence looks more like the American television character Tony Soprano than the iconic revolutionary he once emulated, Che Guevara.
.
"Our ideas are the inverse of George Soros's," said Sanguino, speaking of the billionaire philanthropist. "He discovered the satisfaction of social work after accumulating riches. We discovered the abundance of the market after preaching socialism."
.
The survival of Arco Iris, along with similar but smaller programs run by former rebels, is crucial in a country that is trying, through a two-pronged strategy of military offensives and disarmament negotiations, to sideline three armed insurgencies.
.
Though Colombia is far from achieving peace, the rigors of civil war prompted 1,739 rebels to desert last year, up from 1,307 in 2002. The government has entered negotiations with a rightist paramilitary organization, the enemies of the Marxist rebels, which potentially could disarm 15,000 fighters or more by the end of next year.
.
The throngs of newly disarmed former combatants are clearly good news for the conservative government of President Alvaro Uribe, who won the 2002 election by pledging to weaken rebel movements that have been waging war here since the 1960's.
.
But the former guerrillas have needs in building new lives as members of society, and making the transition from the mountains to the cities is a process fraught with risk. Many rebels wind up jobless and homeless. Those who leave Colombia's largest rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, are seen as turncoats and are at times hunted and killed.
.
Even at Arco Iris, though firmly established, the obstacles are all too clear.
.
"To run a company, oh, my friend, it's not easy at all," said Rodrigo Osorno, a former rebel who is now a board member of Arco Iris. "Building peace is much harder than making war."
.
In this business like no other, threats from enemies are constant. About 15 of Arco Iris's employees have been killed in recent years, probably by rightist paramilitary gunmen, forcing the group to close a farm in one state and all its operations in another.
.
The danger may be mitigated by 40 bodyguards, all former rebels who are employed by Colombia's secret police to protect Arco Iris employees. "The FARC see us as traitors; the paramilitaries see us as part of a larger guerrilla strategy; the military has us in their files; businessmen lack confidence in us," Sanguino said. "It has been a fight to win space in society, to win respect."
.
Simply carving out a niche was not what many of Arco Iris's managers had in mind when they were members of the National Liberation Army, a Cuban-inspired rebel group. Many were former students steeped in radical thought. The ELN, as the rebel group is known from its Spanish name, Ejército Liberacíon Nacional, offered them a vehicle for violently reordering Colombian society. But after Soviet Communism collapsed, a dissident faction of the ELN split off. About 800 former rebels, with Sanguino leading the way, disarmed a decade ago. Bankrolled by the government, Arco Iris was founded to coordinate the integration of guerrillas into society.
.
Arco Iris is not exactly a company. It works more like a foundation, with nonprofit status, though it is apparently breaking even. It depends heavily on money from the governments of various countries, including Spain and the Netherlands, as well as the European Community and contracts with organizations like the UN Development Program.
.
Arco Iris stresses that its focus is not to make money but to finance programs, from training human rights workers to running a crop substitution program for coca farmers. About 200 people have permanent jobs in Arco Iris's programs and at the organization's offices around the country; of those, about 115 are former rebels. But Arco Iris is also very much like a company. It operates with a seven-member board. It is guided by the standard business model.
.
"We are nonprofit, but we also do not want to go broke," Sanguino said. To survive, he says, Arco Iris has to wheel and deal like any other enterprise.
.
The New York Times BOGOTÁ Dressed in a silk tie and tailored navy blue suit, Antonio Sanguino looks every bit the chief executive. His cellphone chirps endlessly, the callers eager to make business propositions. With three bodyguards at his side, he dashes from one end of Bogotá to the other attending one meeting after another.
.
From offices in an elegant Tudor home in one of Bogotá's grand old neighborhoods, Sanguino oversees what in Colombia could be called an empire - a 35-room hotel in the city center, a national construction operation that has built 600 homes, an agricultural brokerage company and other ventures. Other deals are in the works, from a string of Internet cafés in Costa Rica to a partnership with a factory that makes light fixtures for export.
.
It is the kind of work that may seem sharply out of the ordinary for Sanguino and the board members of Nuevo Arco Iris, or the New Rainbow. They are, after all, former Marxist guerrillas.
.
These are men and women who once plotted to overthrow the state. Now they embrace capitalism, or at least Arco Iris's quirky, socially minded model, which channels money from business enterprises into social programs.
.
"We believe the market can generate wealth, which benefits people in the long run," said Sanguino, 37, who with his brash self-confidence looks more like the American television character Tony Soprano than the iconic revolutionary he once emulated, Che Guevara.
.
"Our ideas are the inverse of George Soros's," said Sanguino, speaking of the billionaire philanthropist. "He discovered the satisfaction of social work after accumulating riches. We discovered the abundance of the market after preaching socialism."
.
The survival of Arco Iris, along with similar but smaller programs run by former rebels, is crucial in a country that is trying, through a two-pronged strategy of military offensives and disarmament negotiations, to sideline three armed insurgencies.
.
Though Colombia is far from achieving peace, the rigors of civil war prompted 1,739 rebels to desert last year, up from 1,307 in 2002. The government has entered negotiations with a rightist paramilitary organization, the enemies of the Marxist rebels, which potentially could disarm 15,000 fighters or more by the end of next year.
.
The throngs of newly disarmed former combatants are clearly good news for the conservative government of President Alvaro Uribe, who won the 2002 election by pledging to weaken rebel movements that have been waging war here since the 1960's.
.
But the former guerrillas have needs in building new lives as members of society, and making the transition from the mountains to the cities is a process fraught with risk. Many rebels wind up jobless and homeless. Those who leave Colombia's largest rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, are seen as turncoats and are at times hunted and killed.
.
Even at Arco Iris, though firmly established, the obstacles are all too clear.
.
"To run a company, oh, my friend, it's not easy at all," said Rodrigo Osorno, a former rebel who is now a board member of Arco Iris. "Building peace is much harder than making war."
.
In this business like no other, threats from enemies are constant. About 15 of Arco Iris's employees have been killed in recent years, probably by rightist paramilitary gunmen, forcing the group to close a farm in one state and all its operations in another.
.
The danger may be mitigated by 40 bodyguards, all former rebels who are employed by Colombia's secret police to protect Arco Iris employees. "The FARC see us as traitors; the paramilitaries see us as part of a larger guerrilla strategy; the military has us in their files; businessmen lack confidence in us," Sanguino said. "It has been a fight to win space in society, to win respect."
.
Simply carving out a niche was not what many of Arco Iris's managers had in mind when they were members of the National Liberation Army, a Cuban-inspired rebel group. Many were former students steeped in radical thought. The ELN, as the rebel group is known from its Spanish name, Ejército Liberacíon Nacional, offered them a vehicle for violently reordering Colombian society. But after Soviet Communism collapsed, a dissident faction of the ELN split off. About 800 former rebels, with Sanguino leading the way, disarmed a decade ago. Bankrolled by the government, Arco Iris was founded to coordinate the integration of guerrillas into society.
.
Arco Iris is not exactly a company. It works more like a foundation, with nonprofit status, though it is apparently breaking even. It depends heavily on money from the governments of various countries, including Spain and the Netherlands, as well as the European Community and contracts with organizations like the UN Development Program.
.
Arco Iris stresses that its focus is not to make money but to finance programs, from training human rights workers to running a crop substitution program for coca farmers. About 200 people have permanent jobs in Arco Iris's programs and at the organization's offices around the country; of those, about 115 are former rebels. But Arco Iris is also very much like a company. It operates with a seven-member board. It is guided by the standard business model.
.
"We are nonprofit, but we also do not want to go broke," Sanguino said. To survive, he says, Arco Iris has to wheel and deal like any other enterprise.