By Irma Gallo, with information from Iván Castaneira
Just hours before the second round of elections in Colombia, the Colombian Pacific region, where the Gustavo Petro-Francia Márquez ticket of the Historic Pact won the majority of votes in the first round, is facing violence and intimidation by armed groups and the government to frighten them and dissuade them from voting freely and peacefully.
Ali Bantu Ashanti is the Coordinator of Pacific Vote, an initiative to defend free elections in the Pacific region of Colombia. This region is made up of 62 municipalities, with a population of approximately 1,537,000 inhabitants, the majority of whom are Afro-descendants. Historically, it has a low political-electoral participation and is marked by vote-buying, corruption and violence.
In an interview with Iván Castaneira, Ali Bantu Ashanti expressed his concern about the current situation in the Pacific:
“There is fear and uncertainty. People are worried throughout the Pacific region. Right now I am in the municipality of Guapi, touring this region with the lawyers of Voto Pacífico who decided to join us to monitor, to denounce electoral fraud, vote buying and the human rights violations that we are experiencing in this beautiful and powerful region of the country that is unfortunately mired in violence.”
“In the municipality of Bagadó yesterday, for example, there were strong clashes between the national army and the ELN group, directly violating the right of people to participate freely in Chocó. More than 49 thousand people are currently living in overcrowded conditions,” he continued.
“And what can be said about the two people who were murdered in a hospital in the municipality of Guapi or the indigenous social leader who was murdered in Cauca and many other leaders who have been murdered in the department of Valle.”
The leader called on the national and international community “to keep watch, to conduct surveillance, so that ultimately peaceful elections are held in Colombia and that people can go to the polls without fear, without fear of being killed because they vote for one candidate or another.”
He also denounced the concern that exists for the 40 young people imprisoned by the police in the context of the so-called Democracy Plan. “We are very concerned about what is happening to these young people who mobilized in what was called the social uprising.”
For Bantú Ashanti and the Voto Pacífico organization, the repression of young people is retaliation by the Duque government, “which does not want free and transparent elections to be held.” He is also convinced that the National Registrar is not providing guarantees for people to trust the National Registry: “it has flatly refused to comply with the ruling of the Council of State that requires it to conduct an audit in an independent and impartial manner.”
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.
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