In Colombia, it's dangerous to be left wing

[Judi Lynn]

As Colombian voters prepare to cast ballots in a presidential runoff between right-winger Ivan Duque and leftist Gustavo Petro, the latter candidate's supporters face deadly enemies. Mira Galanova reports from Colombia.

Date 16.06.2018

"We have to banish violence as a way of doing politics. They cannot keep killing us because we have different ideas," says Cristian Delgado. He has faced threats for his activism since he was a student leader over a decade ago. "In Colombia, you are at risk for such a thing as defending public education."

The peace deal that the government signed with the country's largest rebel group, the FARC, in November 2016 promised activism would be a safe endeavor. However, some 300 social leaders and human rights defenders have been killed since then, according to figures collected by Marcha Patriotica, a social and political movement where Delgado is a human rights coordinator. The members of the organization appear frequently on the list of victims.

Many have been killed because they went against the interests of organized crime or the powerful rural elite. They championed the substitution of coca — the raw ingredient for cocaine — and the return of land grabbed during the conflict, denounced illegal logging or opposed mining mega-projects.

. . .

The think tank Indepaz has warned there is a risk of repetition of the Patriotic Union (UP) "genocide." Over 3,000 leaders of this left-wing opposition party — founded during peace negotiations between the FARC and President Belisario Betancur in 1985 — were assassinated by right-wing paramilitaries and security forces in the 1980s and 1990s.

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http://www.dw.com/en/in-colombia-its-dangerous-to-be-left-wing/a-44131086