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  • Colombia.Iván Duque, on the return of the FARC: "They are a gang of narcoterrorists who have the support of the Maduro dictatorship"

No one could miss. It was a must. The commander nicknamed "Alonso" summoned the candidates to present their government programs. Once he heard the proposals, he explained the conditions of the FARC-EP dissidents to allow them to political proselytize in a municipality controlled by them : contribution of 30 million pesos (about 8,000 euros). Do not climb the mountain range with armed escorts or with the windows of the tinted vehicles. Get them down as long as someone travels by motorcycle, it is the helmets to easily identify everyone. And nothing about "unfulfilled" promises or vote buying.

Karina García, 32, of the Liberal Party and the only woman who aspired to the municipality of Suárez, in the north of the department of Cauca, west of Colombia, requested permission to use the vehicle assigned to her by the National Protection Unit . "It is shielded and the glass only drops a little," he explained. Also, that his two bodyguards could accompany him, even if they were disarmed. And, privately, he managed to cut the economic demand in half.

"Campaign without problems," alias "Alonso" concluded at the meeting that took place in early August. A few days later, the guerrillas began to paint the posters with Karina's face in black and on one occasion, four subversives, armed with rifles, warned two of their team not to stick more posters and take away those that were there . But he was not intimidated and continued his runs, eager to become the first woman to rule his municipality.

He thought that more than the guerrillas, one of his rivals was the one who was sweeping the dangerous smear campaign. In a coca mining and informal mining town, controlled by the disagreements of the Sixth Front and the Jaime Martínez mobile column of the FARC-EP, they affirmed that if Karina won, she would eradicate coca crops and attract mining multinationals and paramilitaries .

Alarmed by messages that put her life at risk, she issued two videos on social networks and denounced what happened in an Electoral Monitoring Committee in Suárez. "He said crying: I am a daughter, wife and mother. I have a three year old son , don't make me kill," recalls Marly Janneth Sánchez, her friend and candidate for the City Council.

Three days later, Karina was killed with her mother , a candidate for the Council and three companions after holding electoral events in different villages. The only escort who was going managed to escape injured from an attack with rifles and grenades. The SUV burned completely and the bodies were burned.

The Prosecutor's Office investigates the facts and although the Army dropped "Alonso" and nobody doubts the authorship of the FARC, the town demands to go to the bottom to clear doubts about the brain of the massacre.

With that massacre, there are now seven candidates killed since last July 27, the inscriptions were closed for the local and regional elections on October 27. The last one happened last Sunday, in a village in Tibú , department of Norte de Santander. A man shot Bernardo Betancurt, a candidate for mayor for the Conservative Party.

In addition to the deaths, 50 have received threats, six suffered attacks and two kidnapped them, according to the MOE (Electoral Observation Mission), in the count closed on September 20 and that do not include collateral victims, such as Karina's mother or the members of your team.

"If the trend continues, because they are killing one candidate per week, while in the 2015 elections, there were five throughout the period," says EL MUNDO, Ángela Gómez, a researcher at the MOE. " There are political interests that instigate violence and collective threats through pamphlets that restrict candidates and their followers. Even if they are signed by armed groups that do not exist, they generate fear."

Among the false ones, it should be noted the Black Eagles, perhaps the most used rubric, and the Sinaloa Cartel. Of the authentic ones, the Democratic Center is the target of the FARC dissidents, as one of its members confirmed to this newspaper. The Gaitanista Self-Defense Groups also intend to play their cards. In the south of Bolívar, candidates are required not to interfere in their illegal business and commit to deliver between 10 and 20% of the contracts who wins.

The ELN, for its part, in Arauca, bordering department with Venezuela, warned certain applicants, such as Leila Ardila, not to campaign. And in Chocó he has been kidnapped, since August 24, Tulio Mosquera, who tries to repeat mayor's office in Alto Baudó, and twelve companions. Six days later they released everyone except Mosquera. His family told EL MUNDO that they are unaware of the guerrilla's claims.

To counter the wave of crimes and threats, the government has deployed an operation in the most complex areas. But it will be difficult to protect hundreds of applicants in territories where criminal gangs are the true law .

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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