Colombia is often I place that I personally forgot about the moment my world history class in highschool ended the South America unit. However Enchanto has put it back on my radar and I have been looking over the history of it and one person has caught my eye. Her name, Policarpa, the teenage spy.

Policarpa was neck deep in the revolution. Back in Spain Napoleon had dethroned the Spanish king and put his brother in charge. While the revolutionaries had been working long before the king was dethroned they started saying that they were keeping Colombia safe for when the king comes back. Enter Policarpa.

Policarpa was 13. She ran messages and passed information to rebel groups. She was so good at it she gained a reputation for it. After a few years the local police caught on and she had to skip town. She wound up working in a spy ring in a larger city where she fell in love. There she worked using her sowing skills to get jobs in royalist houses where she would steal documents and pass them along to the rebels.

This didn’t last forever. Policarpa’s boyfriend was caught and had documents incriminating her. She was arrested and for some reason the govern thought executing the a teenager and her boyfriend in a public square would make him more popular. Well obviously it didn’t.

3 years after her death there was a play preformed about her life. Right before the execution scene the crowd rioted attempting to save her and the play had to be cut short. Today Colombia’s woman’s day is on the day of her execution.