The kidnapping this Saturday of the parents of Luis Díaz, Liverpool forward, and the gruesome death of an official from the National Registry, when a mob burned the headquarters of the aforementioned entity in Gamarra, in northern Colombia, were the culmination of a turbulent election campaign. The woman died after being unable to escape from the fire caused after the decision of the CNE (National Electoral Council) to disqualify a candidate.
“They could be the most illegitimate elections in our country,” the Ombudsman, Carlos Camargo, had declared before both events. He had been warning for days of the risk of strong disturbances and lack of guarantees in 133 municipalities, due to irregularities of various kinds and interference in the electoral process by both the guerrillas and the heirs of the paramilitaries.
“I reiterate my rejection against the vile murder of my official, Duperly Arévalo Carrascal,” said the National Registrar, Alexander Vega. “She was the mother of two minors and was cremated in an atrocious case for the country.” He asked the Prosecutor’s Office to arrest those responsible for a burning in which two other workers were also seriously injured. One of them later died in the hospital.
President Petro, however, blamed the CNE for what happened. “You cannot disqualify candidates on the eve of the elections. That is triggering violence and setting the country on fire,” he wrote in X.
As for the armed groups, it is the FARC of Iván Mordisco, the main dissident of the old guerrilla, which represents the greatest danger in its areas of influence. Although they agreed to a three-month ceasefire with the Government and pledged not to interfere in the elections, they have played a decisive role in many localities. Not only must the candidates ask their permission to run, but they support some and force you to vote for them. Others are forced to withdraw and only those they decide can campaign in their areas under control.
It has also not been easy to install the ballot boxes in all points due to the lack of military helicopters, which usually carry out this work, and due to the resistance of said guerrillas to accept the entry of the Army in some places such as Argelia, Cauca.
Aside from the violence, everything indicates that Gustavo Petro will be defeated in the elections. The opposition has wanted to present the local elections as a plebiscite on his presidency and they have everything to win. The surveys predict that the Petrista forces will not conquer any of the large cities – Bogotá, Medellín, Cali, Barranquilla and Bucaramanga – and will barely obtain governorships.
Hence, the president, despite the fact that in Colombia it is illegal for public officials to intervene in campaigns, has tried to support his candidate in the country’s capital, with the purpose of reversing the predictions.
All the opinion polls conclude that the former senator of the Historical Pact and famous screenwriter of Without tits there is no paradise, Gustavo Bolívar, will be defeated this Sunday. The centrist Juan Fernando Galán, who aspires for his own party -New Liberalism-, would be the winner, although if he does not get 40%, as well as ten points ahead of the second, he will have to go to the polls again.
Bogotá will be the only city that will debut the same modality as the presidential elections. In the event that none of the large group of candidates obtains the aforementioned results, the first two will meet again on November 9 to choose Claudia López’s successor.
Less than 24 hours after the polling stations opened, armed men accosted the parents of the Colombian national team and Liverpool footballer, when they were filling up with gasoline at a service station in Barrancas, La Guajira, in the north of the country. They kidnapped the couple and, a few hours later, thanks to intensive pressure from the Police and the Army, who deployed dozens of troops, they managed to rescue her mother, Cilenis Marulanda. The woman, authorities said, was in good health.
The kidnappers had separated the couple and continued with the father on a motorcycle along dirt roads. Luis Manuel Díaz had the intention of helping his brother, a candidate for councilor of Barrancas.
The director of the National Police, General Salamanca, traveled to La Guajira on Saturday to lead the operations, given the fame of Luis Díaz.
