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Colombia to vote Sunday after bloody campaign

In this story: Lack of security blamed Government downplays violence RELATED STORIES, SITES

BOGOTA, Colombia (CNN) -- Colombians go to the polls Sunday to elect governors, mayors and town councils after a campaign marked by killings, kidnappings and intimidation.

More than 20 mayoral candidates have been murdered and dozens more -- facing death threats -- have withdrawn, according to the Colombian Federation of Municipalities.

Candidates in more than half of the country's 1,089 municipalities have been threatened by armed groups waging Colombia's long-running civil war, the federation reported.

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Though election-related violence is down from the last local ballot in 1997, observers say it has taken on a new tone. Instead of trying to prevent elections, as they did in the past, leftist rebels and right-wing paramilitary squads are apparently trying to consolidate their hold on territory by manipulating the outcome of the vote, analysts said.

Those who lack the endorsement of the dominant local faction are pressured to quit their campaigns.

Lack of security blamed

Hernan Dario Escobar, a mayoral candidate in the city of Cali, was kidnapped by rebels and later released unharmed. He blames the absence of public security for the violence.

"The military does not govern in its own territory," Dario said. In Cali, 250 members of Colombia's second-largest guerrilla group, the ELN, have two and a half million citizens living in fear, he said.

One in five Colombian municipalities has no regular police or military presence. Major cities, including Cali, are well fortified by the army and national police, but the countryside around them has frequently become a battleground for government forces and guerrillas.

In September, the ELN kidnapped 80 people on a strip of roadside restaurants outside of Cali. Most were released, but at least 23 hostages remained in captivity as of Friday.

"We are surrounded by guerrillas and lately by the paramilitaries," said Cali voter Eduardo Gutierrez. "And it's obvious we don't even have minimum guarantees by the government that our right to vote will be protected."

Government downplays violence

In the capital, Bogota, where election-related violence is almost non-existent, the government has tried to downplay the extent of the problem.

"There are cases of intimidation, kidnapping, murder, and I am not going to say that is fine, but there has been a lot of exaggeration of the impact of violence on the electoral process," said Interior Minister Humberto de la Calle, who oversees election security.

The government announced that army and police will protect every town with massive security for Sunday's vote, allowing it to proceed with "order and peace," President Andres Pastrana recently said on television.

The local campaign comes at a critical juncture for Colombia. It is seen as a test of the country's embattled democracy and an opportunity to attack corruption and poverty that helps justify the rebel cause.

"The issues that these politicians will be dealing with will have a profound effect on the future of our country," said political science professor Fernando Giraldo of Bogota's Javeriana University.

Reporter Marisol Espinosa and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Colombia's attorney general proposes prisoner exchange with rebels
September 27, 2000

Presidencia de la Republica de Colombia (Spanish)
Transnational Institute Drugs & Democracy Project
U.S. State Department: 1999 Human Rights Report for Colombia
Human Rights Watch Report on Columbia

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