The Only Women On The FBI's Most Wanted List

Publish date: 2024-05-02

Stories of indoctrination are weird. It's hard to imagine how a Westerner can leave a pretty standard existence to move to the jungle to become a militant guerrilla, but that's what happened to Tanja Anamary Nijmeijer, a Dutch national who went to Colombia in the 1990s to work as an English teacher and then ended up joining the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a violent terrorist group.

According to the BBC, Nijmeijer was radicalized by a fellow teacher, who was also a member of FARC. Since she joined the group, she's been implicated in a series of crimes including attacks on warehouses, a police station, and a bus network. She was also involved in the kidnapping of three American citizens, who were held hostage in deplorable conditions for five years after their plane made an emergency landing in a remote part of Colombia. Nijmeijer and 17 other FARC members were indicted on hostage taking, conspiracy to commit hostage taking, using and carrying a firearm during a crime of violence, and conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists.

Nijmeijer is wanted by the United States for her part in the kidnappings, but hasn't made the 10 most wanted list. If she stays down there in the jungle, though, it seems like she'll have plenty of opportunities to do bad things, so perhaps there's hope for her yet.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7qL7Up56eZpOkunB%2BkW9nbGdhZXq4u8yepWadppq%2FbrnApJxmnpKewG7DwKernpxdoba0wI4%3D