MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Killings, bombings and threats mark the coming legislative elections in Colombia

There have been 163 victims of political violence in the last twelve months including the murder of 19 legislative candidates

In less than a month, on 13th March, Colombians will be going to the polls to renew the Legislative, and according to the Peace and Reconciliation Foundation, there have been 163 victims of political violence, including 19 candidates and politicians who have been murdered in the last twelve months.

However, despite all, they are inferior numbers to those of the county and municipal elections in 2019, which reported 230 victims in 177 different violent political actions, of which three out of ten belonged to the opposition of the ruling government.

The Foundation claims there is “a sustained dynamic of violent actions since September last year, with the last five months in particular, the most violent according to the reported monitoring”, even when December and January have not been the most violent.

But some very serious incidents have been reported such as the arson of the home of the El Charco mayor in the province of Nariño, and the discovery of a time bomb, which luckily was neutralized, in a house used for political events of the Commons of Bogotá, a party made up of former guerrilla fighters from FARC who accepted the peace terms.

Furthermore there were explosive attacks on the homes of two lawmakers from the Pacific north province, and all members of the Legislative Assembly of the province have been threatened.

According to the Foundation four out of ten victims have been elected members among which 19 Councilors, 15 mayors, 13 Lower House members, 11 Senators and 7 governors. As can be expected 13 journalists were also threatened and 18 aspiring candidates to the Lower House and Senate.

The majority of people threatened or murdered, 51, belonged to the ruling party be it at local or national level, followed by 39 victims from opposition parties, among which the left party Colombia Humana under the leadership of Gustavo Petro was the one most attacked and with greater number of victims. The Conservative party and the Green Alliance followed in the hit list.

Following the legislative election in March, Colombians will be voting for a new president on May 29. Since there is no immediate reelection in Colombia current president Ivan Duque will be stepping down. The candidate with most chances of succeeding Duque, is precisely Gustavo Petro, a left leaning hopeful, former mayor of the capital Bogotá.