Tanja Nijmeijer, the Dutch woman who joined the Colombian guerrilla group Farc 18 years ago, has left the organisation, Colombian media have reported.

Nijmeijer said in a letter to party members that ‘for me, the party has mutated into something that I cannot yet understand and perhaps never will,’ El Tiempo reported. ‘But what I’m sure of is that [the party] doesn’t fit with me anymore.

Nijmeijer, who graduated in Spanish from Groningen University in 2002, hit the headlines in 2007 when her diaries were found after government troops attacked a rebel camp. In the diaries, she was very critical of her life with the Farc movement.
In 2010, she was thought to have been killed in a government raid, but that later turned out not to be the case.

In 2011, she gave a television interview explaining her full commitment to the cause, which was broadcast by the Nos and in 2012 she attended peace talks between Farc and the Colombian government.

The subsequent agreement in 2016 led to Farc being disbanded and turned into a political party.

According to El Tiempo, Nijmeijer was more a symbol than a political heavyweight. ‘Her departure shows once again that the party which evolved after the peace agreement was signed remains divided,’ the paper said.

The letter gives no clue about her future plans. According to El Tiempo, Nijmeijer said that she will remain available ‘for anything [party members] they may need personally’. ‘I leave with sincere appreciation for so many of you,’ she is quoted as saying.