Violence and Corruption Permeate Election of Peace Deputies in Colombia

A bittersweet victory was celebrated by the victims of the armed conflict in Colombia. The peace pact reserved 16 seats for them in Congress for the first time, but political mafias and even the son of one of the peasant executioners leaked among those elected on March 13.

“The peace agreement wanted the victims to have a say in the country's decisions (...) but we have found some irregular cases about the candidates and their elections” in recent legislatures, Juana Cabezas, spokesperson for the independent study center Indepaz, told AFP.

Signed in 2016, the pacification pact that led to the disarmament of the guerrilla of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) reserved some seats for non-traditional movements representing the victims of the regions most affected by the internal war in the South American country.

Over six decades, more than nine million people, almost 10% of the Colombian population, have suffered directly from the conflict, mostly displaced by violence.

The successful peace negotiations aimed to give them visibility in the Lower House for two legislative periods, each lasting four years.

During elections punctuated by violence in remote areas, nearly 400 candidates ran for so-called peace seats.

At least five of the 16 elected are the targets of complaints that could lead to the loss of their inauguration.

“Some names” of the new congressmen “are unedifying” and “at least they are controversial for many of the country's victims, it's an undeniable reality,” said Javi López, head of the European Union (EU) Electoral Observation Mission in Colombia.

There are “phenomena of interference, the penetration of political parties in these seats or the influence of armed groups,” he added.

The left made a historic advance in the legislatures in the face of the decline of the right wing that has traditionally ruled the country.

-Son of a paramilitary-

Among the main respondents is Jorge Tovar, son of 'Jorge 40', a feared paramilitary extradited to the United States, where he was convicted of drug trafficking.

The human rights leader and lawyer was elected to the seat for a representative of the victims in an area in the north of the country where far-right squads sowed terror.

His father, former paramilitary Rodrigo Tovar, faces dozens of prosecutions for massacres and displacements perpetuated during his fight in blood and fire against left-wing guerrillas.

“Perhaps I am my father's first victim,” said the now deputy in an interview with Caracol TV.

“I lost loved ones because of violence, I was kidnapped by relatives, I had to leave my country,” he defended himself.

According to analyst Cabezas, Tovar's political rivals denounced threats that prevented them from moving to campaign, while he “moved more calmly in the area.”

In addition, there are doubts about their accreditation as a victim by the entity responsible for giving the guarantees.

Tovar won the seat with more than 97% of the count and almost twice the votes of his most immediate opponent.

-Others under suspicion-

“The feeling of the victims is one of frustration,” stressed the spokeswoman for Indepaz, adding that, although some “legitimate leaders” of the populations affected by the conflict were elected, more “oversight and representativeness” was needed.

In the midst of the upsurge in violence that followed the peace agreement, at least a dozen candidates resigned from their seats prior to the elections due to fear or lack of guarantees. None received the money promised to finance them, according to victims' organizations.

Indepaz put the magnifying glass on four other congressmen elected in the peace constituencies.

In Chocó (west), the second department with the largest population of Afro origin (337,696 inhabitants) and the poorest (68%), won a lawyer named for having ties with political mafias, buying votes and even not living in the region. James Hermenegildo Mosquera achieved accreditation as a victim faster than usual, according to Indepaz.

In the southwest of the country, Jhon Fredy Nuñez won, a hardened politician and ally with militants condemned for his ties with paramilitaries, while in the south of Córdoba (north) Leonor Palencia, the governor's cousin and denounced for vote buying, won the elections.

And in Tolima (center-west), the winner was Haiver Rincón, a record of the conservatives for one of Colombia's traditional parties.

The Unit for Victims, the state entity responsible for endorsing candidates for peace seats, assured that it acted under the premises of the “good faith, innocence” of the applicants. “But we will be willing to respect any decision” if the allegations are verified, Ramón Rodríguez, head of the agency, told AFP.

lv/vel/llu