Athlete of courage.

• Author: Perales, Jaime
• Position: Oas

COLOMBIAN CYCLIST Edgar Moreno illustrates the validity of the saying, "sport does not build the courage of an individual, it shows it." Twenty-nine-years old, Moreno, who racks competitively, lost his left leg to an antipersonnel landmine twelve years ago. Cycling became the focus of the six years of physical and psychological therapy he received at the Comprehensive Rehabilitation Center of Colombia (CIREC) and helped reestablish his self-esteem. "After the accident," says Moreno, "I started to be distant from my family because I did not want pity, but slowly l returned to them."

Recalling the day of his accident, he says, "I was working on a hacienda when I stepped on the mine that changed my life forever." After being unconscious for two hours, he walked to a health center where he would wait three days before being taken to the hospital where his leg was amputated. Moreno is one of more titan twenty five hundred landmine victims in his country. Every day at least, two people have an accident caused by an antipersonnel landmine.

Civil conflicts over the past two decades have left landmines scattered throughout the rural areas in ten countries of Latin America; close to three-quarters of Colombia's departments are affected. OAS demining...