Operation Bethlehem’s key objective was to give the FARC guerrillas a guiding light that would lead their way to freedom and to their families at Christmas.

The strategy consisted in giving guerrillas a message that could only be read at night. The best time to escape in of the jungle was at this hour, but given the vastness of the jungle, guerrillas would become lost in their demobilization attempt. The message we would communicate to the guerrillas would say "FOLLOW THE LIGHT".

178 guerrillas demobilized throughout Christmas 2012.

The total amount of demobilized guerrillas corresponded to 16% of the year's demobilizations. It represents the largest proportion of demobilized guerrillas in December for the past 6 years.

Underage (child soldier) demobilizations increased by 11%.

The campaign mixed:

Powerful beacon lights in town plazas. They illuminated the sky, giving the demobilizing guerrillas a direction to go to when they escaped from their camps at night.

10,000 LED lights were dropped from helicopters, along key guerrilla routes in the jungle, designed to guide them during their escape attempts.

We also created glow in the dark stickers, that were put on trees along strategic pathways. Furthermore, we installed glow-in-the-dark billboards carrying the message: "Guerrilla, Follow the Light.”

Radio broadcasts invited families to tell their guerrilla relatives to demobilize by following the lights in Christmas time.