By Pamela Cruz and Manuel Ortiz

Paramilitary groups linked to drug trafficking, corruption and political pressure to buy votes are some of the situations that women and men will face in these elections in Montes de María, a mountainous region in the Colombian Caribbean, between the departments of Sucre and Bolívar.

According to human rights defender Mayerlis Angarita Robles, although Montes de María is a beautiful region with very happy people, it also has a history of risk, with four early warnings that show the delays of groups such as the 35th and 37th Fronts of the FARC, who did not enter into the process of laying down arms and who began to feed the groups that are exercising crime in the area.

The founder and director of the Narrar Para Vivir women's support network pointed out that violence "today in Montes de María is closely linked to drug trafficking and is much more dangerous. So, it is in this context that the elections will take place; it is not only corruption, vote buying, but also the risk of losing one's life."

He also said that in this area "vote buying is almost always a problem, precisely because of the issue of poverty. There are also many isolated areas and sometimes, every four years, people come to sell their votes for the opportunity to have something."

«So, what we do as an organization is to raise awareness, to make people understand the value of voting and what it means, because we need education, housing, health for our rights and not to vote in exchange for money.»

Angarita Robles added that some institutions responsible for speaking out in favor of the people insist on denying the presence of groups linked to drug trafficking in the area, and this makes it very difficult to exercise democracy in this context.

"I don't dare to say who they do or don't do, but there are also situations like a murder in a village. This causes anxiety, fear, and is often reflected in abstention from voting, or in the fact that unexpected results are seen in certain regions."

"I have been told that there are communities that have been ordered not to vote, or to vote for certain candidates," said the human rights defender, "which shows the pressure that has been put on them to vote for candidate X, so that people are now afraid to go out again, because they are afraid of reprisals against the communities."

«And since Montes de María has a history of 157 massacres and more than 4,172 homicides, you can imagine what it means for us to be a democracy today in a context where Monte de María is seen nationally and internationally as a territory of reconciliation, of peace. And yes we are, there are very tough people here, I think we are too tough to continue here in a territory, when the price of working for peace is your life.»

Ensuring democracy: the work of women and the community

For Mayerlis Angarita Robles Bueno, women have had to prepare to defend their rights, "in fact, we currently have eight Special Peace seats in the Peace Agreement, because we demanded that, just as there were seats for the FARC, the victims should have our own."

And although it was difficult to obtain, after filing several actions and a lawsuit, which were won, it was achieved that through this pronouncement of the Court the seats were given. "We fought for this seat... today we have the seat of Paz de Montes de María," she said.

He added that today, in addition, "we know how to take care of the vote, so we have electoral witnesses, we have trained people to go early, to be attentive, that if the ballot is crossed out they have the right to ask for another one, to be very attentive at the voting tables, in the counting."

«And here, in most cases, elections are won at the Registry Office, so that is where we must also be very careful. We must be very careful that the votes are not lost, because they can be seen there and that is what we all do. We are rural women, but we are women who have prepared ourselves, who have been educated, who know, who know what is happening in the territory and who are not naive.»

"We know the interests that exist to prevent democracy from reigning in the country today. And I believe that there is a cry, there is a general awakening throughout Colombia. Colombia wants democracy and wants the people to govern and we hope to have victory tomorrow."

Narrating to Live, a support network between the women of Montes de María

Finally, Mayerlis Angarita Robles commented that practicing law in Colombia is difficult, especially in the Montes de María region, where there is a patriarchal, sexist culture and women have been repeatedly taken as spoils of war.

"And precisely because we are defenders and women, it is much more difficult for us, because we are also charged for being women, we are charged for being born women who want to be defenders or leaders," she said.

"In my case, I have been through three attacks - in 2012, 2015, 2019 - and I pray to God that another one does not happen, because you really don't know if you will come out alive or not," as is the case for many other social and women's leaders in the Montes de María area and throughout the country.

Narrar para Vivir is an organization made up of 840 rural women, who have also transcended in academia, and who have worked for the restoration of their rights over the course of 21 years.

«We have been able to influence the spaces where decisions are made that have to do with our local reality and today we are showing that women are not only that history and that resistance when we were taken as spoils of war, but today we are transforming the territories, we are peace builders, we are exercising democracy and, above all, we are resisting and from the resilience of being reborn and rebuilding the territory so that illegal groups are not acting in the same way they did before.»

"We do this through the formation of strength, of words, of peaceful coexistence, of non-violent conflict resolution and above all, by saying that in this territory we will not be one inch or one inch closer to the violent," said the human rights defender.

This note was produced with the support of a group of journalists covering the second round elections in Colombia, sponsored by the organization Global Exchange in collaboration with Peninsula 360 Press.

You may be interested in: Failed social policies, reason for outburst against Colombian government: activist

The failed social and economic policies of the Colombian government are some of the main reasons for the strikes and social unrest in the country in 2020 and 2021, as well as the detriment of people's possibilities and capabilities to have a dignified life.

Colombian human rights defender Walter Agredo Muñoz said in an interview with Global Exchange and Península 360 Press that "society was taken by surprise when the anger accumulated over sensitive issues such as inequality, exclusion and corruption by the country's right wing led to strikes by the population."

And during 2020, the activist said, inequality "cost many lives", especially among young people in Santiago de Cali, where the social outbreak led to people becoming aware, which generated demonstrations of solidarity among those protesting on the part of society, supporting the cause with humanitarian accompaniment.

Interviewed by reporter Alina Duarte, Agredo Muñoz mentioned that young people are the creators of the first lines of protest against the state because they represent a stigmatized youth that continually seeks to belong to an economic and social system that constantly, for reasons of preparation and prejudices, rejects them.

This, he continues, "leads to the exhaustion of the young people who decided to organize and meet in different parts of Cali, Puerto Resistencia and Siloé, and who were unjustly linked to the National Liberation Army as a way of stigmatizing them, which was justification by the government to kill them."

In response to the protests, the government sent General Eduardo Enrique Zapateiro Altamiranda, who said he would restore order in less than two weeks. However, the problem took up to three months to resolve, but not before implementing "terrorist" policies among the population, as the human rights defender mentions.

One of the sectors most affected by the policies of order implemented by the government following the strikes of 2020 and 2021, in addition to organizations, is the countryside. This is because the peasant sector has experienced most of the attacks by a terrorist state disguised as a democracy, he said.

Agredo Muñoz, who also considers himself part of the Historic Pact, mentions that he fears that the results of the elections to be held on June 19 will not be experienced as an election, but as an imposition, in response to which, the different sectors that make up the "Pact", such as women, Afro-Colombians, indigenous people and the LGBTI community, would be willing to use legal means and channels to carry out peaceful social protests.

The draft of the Historic Pact has been seen to be distorted by the opposition

Agredo Muñoz talks about the distortion that the concept of the "Historic Pact" headed by candidate Gustavo Petro and Francia Márquez has suffered in Colombia, and states that there has been a distortion since properties will be expropriated, when in reality the pact says: it is focused on ensuring that people with limited resources have guaranteed basic services and are attended to with quality services.

"Living well, as they call it in Colombia, refers to that, to enjoying the basic rights of health, education and housing."

This article was produced with the support of a group of journalists covering the first round of elections in Colombia, sponsored by the organization Global Exchange, in collaboration with Península 360 Press.

You may be interested in: People in the Colombian Pacific feel very close to Francia Márquez

Colombia is preparing for a second round of elections. With 8.5 million votes in the first round, Gustavo Petro, the candidate of the Historic Pact, whose vice-presidential running mate is Francia Márquez, will face the right-wing option, represented by Rodolfo Hernández, who did not reach 6 million.

According to the report of the organization Voto Pacífico, in this region of the country there was a high rate of abstentionism. We spoke with the independent journalist Témoris Grecko, special correspondent of Global Exchange and Peninsula 360 Press, about the main causes of this phenomenon, as well as his perception of the atmosphere that exists a few hours before the second round.

What specific region are you located in?

We are visiting towns on the coast of the department of Cauca, in the Pacific region of Colombia.

How do you perceive the atmosphere? The report “The Vote Will Be Peaceful or It Will Not Be” denounces pressure from armed groups to prevent people from going to the polls. Have you seen people's fear?

People seem calm, but also a little worried. They are alert to what could happen; there was a motor bomb attack in Suárez, which is in another part of the Cauca department, and before that there was one in Corinto. It is known that there are armed groups that are upset, that could try to affect the elections, not so much because they are interested in the elections themselves, but because some of their leaders have been killed and also because it seems that a national channel published information infiltrating a reporter into an armed group. So, this annoyance could translate into some kind of violent act.

Are there displacements due to violence in the area where you are located?

Yes, there are a lot of people. It is normal for people here to talk about relatives or friends who are in other parts of the country, maybe from the department, maybe from the country, because they have been forced to leave their homes.

According to the aforementioned report, Petro was voted for massively in this region, with 1,962,391 votes in the four departments. Do you think people have hope for change? Do you see it as possible?

In fact, one of the tasks ahead of them is to ensure that those people who have been displaced, or some of those people, as they are still registered here, at least have the opportunity to come and vote, to exercise their right to vote.

How much did the Francia Márquez factor influence the above numbers?

In these Pacific regions, from what we have been able to see, most people are in favour of Petro; there is no propaganda for Rodolfo Hernández, only for Petro and Francia, and this in part has to do with Francia and the identification they feel with her. Although Petro has done some things in the past that have generated doubts in this sector of the population, Francia is a person they feel very close to and this consolidates their will to support her. 

So yes, there is enormous hope; they have the idea that France and Petro will be able to create the conditions to end the violence, the armed conflict, and in this way they believe that their lives will improve a lot. 

They have a history of promoting peace talks when [Juan Manuel] Santos governed and reaching agreements, and that for a moment led to a significant reduction in violence that allowed them to develop, move around and be more relaxed. Now with the government of [Iván] Duque, that ended and violence resurged, and that is why they feel more threatened when carrying out their activities and that inhibits them a lot. 

So, they do have great hope, not only in the projects that they can carry out for economic and social development, but above all, in ending the violence so that they can live in peace.

This article was produced with the support of a group of journalists covering the second round of elections in Colombia, sponsored by the Global Exchange organization in collaboration with Península 360 Press.

You may be interested in: "Muchachada" is ready to face possible fraud in Colombia: "Cucho" Tejada

The "boys" are willing to stand up to a possible fraud in Colombia in the second round of presidential elections and that could give the position to the candidate Rodolfo Hernández, said the elected representative to the Valle del Cauca congress for the Historic Pact, Jose Alberto Tejada Echeverri, better known as “El Cucho from Channel 2”.

"If Rodolfo Hernández is elected, don't think he'll do well. These kids are ready to stand up to him, and if it's Petro, I hope that the kids are also vigilant, both towards the government and towards the congressmen who are being elected, because the worst thing that can happen to us is to betray the hope of these people who came out in the uprising," said the journalist and businessman from Cali, Colombia.

In an interview with Alina Duarte, one of the reporters covering the second round of elections in Colombia, sponsored by the organization Global Exchange in collaboration with Península 360 Press, El Cucho stressed that the country "is not governed by politicians, but by criminal mafias that use trivial politicians to maintain economic, territorial, social and political power."

In this regard, he pointed out that the biggest problem Colombia has is that the political class has disappeared, because he said, "there are no longer ideas or great State proposals, but a group of "lobbyists" and criminals dressed as politicians who have done nothing but co-opt public income and assets for their own purposes, taking over large swathes of the national territory."

In response, he said that the "youngsters" feel that they are living in a borrowed country, "a country that is not theirs" despite having been born there, and that "with aggression they have occupied Cali as a laboratory for social explosion. What they are causing is for this to get out of hand."

"I hope we are wrong, but if they continue to capture young people of whom there is no evidence that they are terrorists, criminals or murderers, while one sees that the police who killed young people who disappeared and mutilated young people are not harmed, that generates anger in the heart and could explode and it seems that is what the current government wants," he said.

She added that Colombia is not the same after April 28, 2021, because, she said, on that day "the Second Republic was born, one where girls and boys who were not taken into account, where they told everyone: we exist and we do not want to continue being left out of the cake, we do not want to be treated any longer with precarious incomes, without food, without education and you stealing from the country in front of us. So, Colombia will not be the same." 

Forecast for this Sunday, is there hope?

As the leader of the broad front of the Historic Pact in Cali, and as an elected congressman, he pointed out that he hopes that Gustavo Petro will be allowed to win the presidency "and that they will not boycott this dream of a country."

Tejada explained that all the conditions exist for Petro to be president, since "there is no doubt that the majority decision of the people of Colombia is that Petro and Francia will be the new government."

Another thing, he said, is whether political, security and media conditions allow it.

«Now I speak to you as an analyst, I am very skeptical about this. I think that they are already forcing Petro to recognize and accept the results in advance. They are denying him the right to be defeated in a fair trial. This message must be read between the lines. This is an authoritarian act, a fascist act.»

In addition, he said that the detention of young people is a strategy of fear. "Fear is the greatest ingredient for generating social immobility, because when you are afraid, you buy security, you no longer buy reasons."

He added that, in addition to everything, a script is being prepared with two possible scenarios. The first, "where Petro is not allowed to win with a monumental fraud, with a chaos that breaks institutional possibilities of democratic elections, which can generate many serious situations."

While the second is to let him win, but not to take possession.

«From June 19 to August 7, many things can happen, such as what happened in Colombia in 1953, where the incumbent president was overthrown by a coup d'état and the elections are set aside. Second, the opposing candidate may win and be called to trial, and he may not be allowed to take office, and if he does, the Supreme Court will immediately suspend him from office and leave the vice president in charge, an unscrupulous and inexperienced woman who will be easy prey to the manipulation that this current regime will do to its new government, because she is inexperienced.»

A third option, he stressed, is that Rodolfo should not be removed from office - if he wins - and that he should be allowed to take office through "legalistic" formulas where he will be warned: "Look, my son, you will remain in power, but you are practically on the verge of going to jail, there we will prevent them from doing anything to you, but you will let us govern in exchange for your freedom and your assets, in exchange for us continuing to manage the country as we wish."

And finally, one where Petro's Republic is made "unlivable, he is subjected to a bloody coup or killed from June 19 to August 6 or after August 7, is the scenario I see as an analyst."

This article was produced with the support of a group of journalists covering the second round of elections in Colombia, sponsored by the Global Exchange organization in collaboration with Península 360 Press.

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