Colombia Rebels Turn Vote Into Risky Campaign

Oscar Gomez was out campaigning in the countryside. Lawyer Manuel Cuellar was driving, at dawn, to this state capital. Neftali Rodriguez, the mayor of Cumbitara, had gone to check on a truck that was in the repair shop. Television reporter Waldemar Morillo, a mayoral candidate, was walking to his office.

All four men were kidnapped one day last month by Colombian rebels. Along with 29 other mayoral and city council candidates--and eight other mayors--they were held for two weeks, moving from place to place in the guerrilla-controlled, mosquito-infested cocaine territory of Narino state, on the Ecuadorean border.

By the time it was over, all 32 candidates had agreed to withdraw from their races, requesting that the government postpone the upcoming Oct. 26 municipal and state elections. Theirs were among 1,000 withdrawals that Colombia’s two major guerrilla groups have obtained in a concerted effort to sabotage the elections.

Kidnapped candidates said their captors told them that anyone who campaigns or takes office will become a “military objective,” guerrilla-speak for an assassination target. No one doubts that the insurgents will carry out their threats: This year alone, 30 mayors have been slain.

Exercising Control

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known by their Spanish initials, FARC, and the National Liberation Army, or ELN, are trying to halt local elections to prove that they have undisputed control over large parts of Colombia, analysts say. Although the rebels spout a leftist political ideology, their main sources of income are kidnapping, extortion and “taxes” on cocaine production.

Effectively running city hall, as they do in many towns, is no longer enough. Now they intend to do away with local elected offices, according to analysts.

In communiques, the guerrillas argue that the government has shown bad faith by attacking FARC headquarters at the same time that officials were offering peace talks. In addition, rebels blame the government for the killings of left-wing local political leaders.

At the same time that they have forced candidates’ withdrawals, rebels have bombed voter registration offices and stepped up their military attacks. Earlier this month, 17 policemen died in the state of Meta when a FARC unit dynamited two police trucks and then opened fire with machine guns and grenades.

“The guerrillas . . . want to show their power by setting off bombs, killing police officers and kidnapping mayors,” said Rosso Jose Serrano, director of the 200,000-officer national police, who wore a black ribbon on his uniform lapel in honor of the slain officers.

“But the reality,” he said, “is that there are going to be elections in Bogota, Cali, Barranquilla and Medellin, which account for 90% of the votes.”

Outside the major cities, the rebel opposition to elections is getting results.

Election activity has halted completely in guerrilla-controlled, cocaine-producing states such as Caqueta and Putumayo, which borders Narino. In Narino, some areas remain under government control but campaigning has become almost clandestine, conducted in living rooms with curtains drawn and lookouts posted.

In one such get-together, two dozen residents of Santa Barbara, a rural settlement on the Pasto city limits, sat on hard wooden chairs in a living room. They had come to talk with mayoral candidate Jimmy Pedreros.

Call in the Night

A longtime member of M-19, a rebel group that made peace with the government in 1990, the 39-year-old Pedreros infuriated the guerrillas when, in a television appearance Sept. 23, he denounced the withdrawal of the 32 candidates.

“That night, I got a call [telling me] that unless I resigned, I would be a military objective,” he said.

Since then, Pedreros has not appeared in public. He appears in private homes, and his campaign also has used an Internet connection to set up teleconferences in seven rural communities.

“Intimidation cannot be allowed to become a political tool,” he said. “I have political commitments that are more important than my personal situation. I know that bullets do not bounce off me. But I cannot neglect the willpower that the peace process has generated and my obligations to people who hope that things can change.”

In rural areas where the guerrillas hold sway, candidates are less inclined to openly defy them. For example, the government refused to accept the withdrawals of the candidates who were kidnapped last month, but none is campaigning.

One of them, reporter Morillo, a candidate for mayor of La Llanada in the Cordillera Occidental mountain range, said that if he is elected, “I will resign immediately. My life comes first. It would be beautiful to sacrifice oneself for a town one loves, but the reality is that the cemeteries are full of brave men, and the dead do not accomplish anything.”

In nearby Cumbitara, Orlando Rodriguez, the unopposed candidate for mayor, moved to Cali shortly after guerrillas released him.

Lawyer Cuellar, the scion of a prominent political family, has stopped most public appearances in his quest for the city hall of Samaniego but said he will serve if elected.

Lingering Hopes

Gomez has quit campaigning but said he still has hopes that the guerrillas could be persuaded to let him accept the mayoralty of El Rosario if he won. “The guerrillas have always been the ones to help find solutions for problems in the region,” he reasoned.

But residents of rebel-controlled areas are beginning to see the insurgents as troublemakers. That unexpected reaction has split the FARC high command; some leaders fear losing their support base over the issue, according to sources close to the guerrillas.

“These next weeks are going to be tough,” Serrano said. “The candidates and the government have suggested that we assign people to protect the candidates. But, unfortunately, we cannot offer everyone security: There are 90,000 candidates for public office!”

Most candidates still campaigning are making their own security arrangements. Arriving for an interview here recently, Narino gubernatorial candidate Carlos Maya was hustled through a hotel lobby by a muscular bodyguard, who later stood sentry outside the room while the candidate talked.

Pedreros called on former guerrillas now living in Bogota and the Amazonian state of Caqueta to protect him through the last weeks of his campaign. Public security will be out in full force on election day to safeguard voters, Serrano said.

But voters are more worried about what will happen after the elections if the winners refuse to take office Jan. 1. According to military sources, the army has been instructed to prepare officers to run rural towns in case civilians do not take office as scheduled.

Cuellar’s hometown of Samaniego is among those most likely to find itself with a military mayor. Nestled in the Cordillera Occidental, the town lies between two rebel fronts, one FARC and the other ELN.

So far the town is peaceful, a stick of dynamite without a fuse.

“We do not want a military mayor here,” said Nadia Obando, 28, gathering signatures one recent Sunday on a petition for peace. “If that happens, there will be war.”