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Colombia Mayors Face Cross fire of Violence

Mayor may be the most dangerous job in Colombia.

On average one mayor is killed each month. Assassin and insurgent bullets have killed 30 from from 1998 to present. Their cities are sometimes unguarded or patrolled by no more than a handful of policemen. The population is under the threat of guerrilla units and right-wing paramilitaries. Offensives can send thousands of displaced to town without warning. Kidnappings and shadowy edicts that the mayor resign are routine.

This year, mayors are approaching the end of their battle-scarred three-year terms. And with new elections slated for October 29 frustration is at an all-time high. In May 123 mayors in the department of Antioquia (Thearea accounts for one-third of the nation´s violence, including one-half of its disappeared and routinely posts the highest number of massacres.) held a one-day work stoppage to demand that President Andres Pastrana paymore attention to their security and provide sufficient funds to repair damage.

They also want their concerns given greater importance in the context of Pastana´speace initiative. During a meeting with the President in May the mayors noted that Antioquia has seven counties without police presence; funds are needed to care for 450,000 displaced and finance repairs to damage done in 20 insurgent takeovers of cities since 1998.

The mayors also called for redefining the peace negotiations with the aim of establishing concrete accords within definite time frames. Local talks with insurgents and paramilitaries also should be authorized to avoid violence, they said.

"Because of the situation faced by the mayors it has become very difficult to govern," says Former mayor of Cocorna Jose Aldemar Serna Paliez. Serna resigned in June following release from kidnapping in April by the Natioanl Liberation Army (ELN)-- Colombia´s second largest insurgent group. He had previously been kidnapped by the nation´s largest leftwing army, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC-EP) during elections in October 1997 and by the ELN in October, 1999.

Cocorna, a tourist area of 22,500 became a focal point in Colombia´s 36-year-old civil war because of its strategic location along the Medellin-Bogota Highway. Competing for control are two fronts of the FARC-EP, one front of the ELN and paramilitary units. Problems had been the norm since Serna took office.

A city adviser was assassinated on Jan. 11998. On June 30, 1998 members of the ELN attacked the town damaging 45 houses, the library, the mayor´s office and the cultural center. In November, 1998 the FARC attacked Cocorna and kidnapped seven policemen who are still being held captive.

Serna´s most recent problem began in March when a paramilitary leader in nearby Puerto Boyaca ordered the depopulation under threat of murder of a 150-kilometer long swath of the Bogata-Medellin highway, displacing about 8,000 people. The ELN´s Carlos Alirio Buitrago Front accused the mayor of supporting the forced displacement.

"These people kidnapped me and were going to kill me because I was supposedly in charge of the displacement of the families. And because we have an organizational committee which we had established to deal with the displaced. The commandante of this group, supposed something I was completely innocent of." Serna bemoans that he cannot safely serve out the remainder of his term, which ends in December: ¨It´s taking legitimacy away from something that´s been very healthy -- the popular election of mayors.¨ (Colombia switched from military mayors to elected mayors in1988.) ¨We should not have to be paying the consequences of an absurd war. Although we realize that there´s a lot of social breakdown, social injustice.¨

As new elections approach the political climate is chilled ventures, Cocorna Parish Priest Fabian Silva. ¨The people know that politicians are targets in the eyes of the people. As a result of being targets of all the armed groups one tends to say I´m not getting involved. Or if one wants to carry out apolitical program it has to be within tremendous limitations. There´s not much spontaneity. Anyone who risks doing anything has someone who attacks him which happened with this mayor."

In addition to the the violence whoever is elected mayor in October will face dire financial constraints because of recent central government austerity and decentralization moves.

"Cocorna and its county are very poor," says City Planner Jorge Torres. "We depend 90% on the funds the national government sends us to function and carry out public works. Now the tendency is for the cities to depend on their own resources -- that everything we do be paid with what we collect. But with the situation right now, especially in the rural area there are not enough businesses paying taxes. If we have to function on what we collect the city will have to close."

In nearby El Penol, the mayor also resigned in June following an ELN ultimatum. Mayor Luz Marina Salazar was declared a "military objective" by the ELN following the killing of 6 persons in town in May. "They accuse me of collaborating with the paramilitaries. Something that´s not true," Salazar said.

Colombia´s economic collapse brought Penol, a tourist center of 17,000, to a stand still forcing the mayor to fire more than 50 employees and hold back wage payments. Salazar said she sought central government assistance to arrange a 1,500 million peso ($750,000) loan to restore the city´s viability. But she could not get funds in time to stop being jailed for ten days for failing to pay city wages. "I´ve always been honest and have never had any dealings with illegal groups. They´ve questioned my not having paid the city employees for seven months. But that´s the result of the economic situation in the area."

Salazar and Serna bring to five the number of mayors forced to resign in Antioquia this electoral period because of insurgent death threats. They are luckier than the eight mayors slain in Antioquia during the present three-year term. Whether their resignations will keep them safe remains unclear. Ten former mayors have been killed after leaving office. The situation has spawned efforts to have the mayors and their governments removed from the conflict.

In May the Colombian Federation of Counties held talks with leaders of the Left Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia in its Caguan negotiating zone and with Carlos Castano of the Right-wing Self Defense Forces of Colombia seeking respect for the lives of Colombia´s mayors. The group received some positive reassurances, although mayors have been killed since the meetings. The Federation´s Executive Director Gilberto Toro Giraldo told the El Colombiano newspaper he expects that the approaching election campaign will be particularly difficult. "The guerrillas and the paramilitaries will try to impose their candidates in the zones where they have influence. But the biggest problem will be in the region where there is a dispute over territory. There we will have a bloodbath."

For some in Colombia the objective is to seek a seperate peace while national negotiations grind on. Recently the town of Yali, population 9,000,declared itself a neutral town of peace and is seeking the withdrawal of both guerrilla and paramilitary forces from the county. Yali Mayor Hernan Dario Salazar said the idea is backed by a broad base of community leaders. "The proposal has been put before the armed forces, it has been put before the paramilitaries. We had the entire campesino community talking, all the community leaders. We also talked to the FARC and ELN (National Liberation Army). They´ve haven´t told us yes or no. But we´ve given it publicity and we´ve talked to the international community."

Yali, an area rich in agriculture, including illicit coke plantings, has come under a paramilitary offensive which has the three forces fighting all around the area. "The self-defense forces (paramilitaries) are entering the area at an accelerated rate to dominate the territory. The problem is being caught in the two or three cross fires. Everyone wants you to collaborate. But if you end up involved with them you are sent to your tomb. The people in Yali want to be left alone so they can work." stresses Salazar.

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