COLOMBIA:The killing of a mayoral candidate by left-wing rebels underscores the risks that politicians still face in Colombia, where violence remains endemic, writes Chris Kraulin Villarica
Colourful banners bearing mayoral candidate Julio Cesar Marentes' smiling face are still festooned around this tiny coffee-growing town even though he was killed by left-wing rebels three weeks ago.
Marentes is one of 15 mayoral and city council candidates killed since August by armed groups across Colombia in advance of nationwide local and gubernatorial elections on October 28th.
The banners and posters remain in place because they serve as publicity for Marentes's wife, Maria Eugenia , who has taken his place on the ballot in this Tolima state town about 100 miles southwest of Bogota.
Last week, she received her first death threat, from a caller who asked what size coffin she would need.
"I'm going to finish what Julio Cesar started," she said in a brief interview during a rally attended by 300 supporters. "There are too many injustices to tend to for me to be intimidated."
Julio Cesar Marentes (44), is believed to have been killed by rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc), who have declared that any candidate who supports president Alvaro Uribe is a "military target".
Four days after Marentes was killed on September 22nd, the bullet-riddled body of another mayoral candidate and Uribe supporter, Alberto Martinez Barbosa, was found in the neighbouring town of Rioblanco. He had been kidnapped two weeks earlier, apparently by the Farc.
Candidates in Colombia routinely are threatened, kidnapped or slain by right-wing paramilitary groups, drug traffickers and political opponents, in addition to left-wing rebels. Members of Marentes's campaign team don't discount the possibility that his killers were paid by local political foes.
Candidates in 576 municipalities, or more than half of the nation's total, are running despite the risks of physical violence, according to a study by the election-monitoring group, Electoral Observation Mission.
In 146 townships, the risk is "extreme", said mission director Alejandra Barrios.
Violence is down from previous years as a result of security measures put in place by Uribe, assisted by billions of dollars of US aid under the so-called "Plan Colombia". Another factor is the demobilisation of 30,000 paramilitary fighters, who in past elections used intimidation and killings to cow voters.
An easing of violence and fear is reflected by the much higher number of candidates - a total of 70,000 - running for local office this year than in 2003, the last local elections, said Gilberto Toro, director of the Colombian Federation of Municipalities .
"People can run in towns where before they were forced by paramilitaries to resign," Toro said. "We also see more candidates running in places formerly controlled by the Farc, who in many cases had to retreat to the jungles and mountains to escape the armed forces."
But Marentes's killing underscores the risks that candidates still face in Colombia. Here in Tolima state, dominated by the rugged eastern Cordillera mountain range, the threats are mainly from the Farc, which has waged a bloody, decades-long campaign to discourage candidates.
The risks are especially acute in isolated towns such as Villarica, nestled high up in coffee country and two hours by winding, mostly gravel road from the nearest city, Melgar.
Marentes's daughter, Andrea, a 19-year-old law student in Bogota, said she was happy that her mother is running despite the risks, because otherwise she would be "sitting at home depressed".
"She knows better than anyone that this is what my father would want her to do," Andrea said, adding defiantly that when she earns her degree, she plans to return to Villarica to follow her father into politics.
The town is gripped by fear, said Sixto Marentes, the victim's brother. His father and one of his brothers emigrated to Canada four years ago after receiving death threats.