The “normality” in the electoral campaign in the big Colombian cities contrasts with the danger of getting involved in politics in the areas where the conflict continues. A team from France 24 traveled to Saravena, in the department of Arauca, to see what it’s like to campaign for the presidential elections on May 29.
In Saravena there is hardly any electoral advertising. In this town there are surveillance posts shot at, the remains of cars that exploded like bombs and a security ring. The latter is in the urban center and is the only place in the municipality where you can see electoral advertising from the Colombian right.
The ring consists of a block of five streets where authorities and threatened people live. Between police trenches and fences, a house stands out, completely covered in electoral posters of the candidate Federico Gutiérrez.
Two young people from the Gutiérrez campaign prefer to hide their identity. Only Yecid Lozano, former mayor of Saravena, who has been the victim of four attacks and one kidnapping, dares to speak publicly. He mobilizes with six escorts, divided into two armored cars.
And that, despite being, as he claims, the first recorded living inhabitant of Saravena. The municipality, founded in 1976, has more than 40,000 inhabitants. Yecid arrived with the people who had to establish the institutionality in that distant place. At the same time, those known in Colombia as settlers arrived, to take advantage of the fertile Araucanian lands.
The love for work is in the DNA of Colombians; a way to get away from the easy money of illicit businesses. Also, in the background, a system with few labor rights and opportunities. Work and business are Yecid Lozano’s main argument in support of candidate Federico Gutiérrez:
“‘Fico’ comes with a democratic political proposal, to strengthen large companies. Because when we finish with these, we will end the job opportunity and Colombians are not drones, we like to work”, an argument that serves as a prologue before attacking to the neighboring country, with which Arauca shares a border: “Here there are no subsidies, it is the problem of the Venezuelans, because here you have to pay for everything and there they give everything”.
The National Liberation Army (ELN), founded in the 1960s, and with a Marxist-Leninist tendency, has a large presence in the department. An ideological dimension opposed to Lozano: “They say we are in enemy territory, but we always win.”
In the second round of the 2018 presidential elections, the current right-wing president, Iván Duque, took 64.94% of the vote, against 31.54% for the leftist, Gustavo Petro.
Despite the favorable electoral context, Lozano is the only one in the family who is still in Saravena: “Campaigning for ‘Fico’ is risky for people and we have to make proposals through social networks.”
war, war and war
The State has never finished having a total presence in Arauca and the guerrillas have historically taken advantage of that weakness.
For more than 40 years, the ELN and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) have been present in the department of Arauca, generating different conflicts between these two armed groups.
Between 2006 and 2010 there was a war that caused more than a thousand deaths. After a peace pact, both guerrillas shared the territory, the north remained in the hands of the ELN; the south, under FARC control. At that time, with the initiative of the peasants, the coca plantations were eradicated, to the point that Arauca was declared a territory free of illicit crops.
Coca was replaced by other plantations such as bananas and cocoa, in addition to betting on livestock, an industry that accounts for 28% of the total in Colombia.
However, the financing of the armed groups continued from the extortion of the oil companies. In addition, the strength of the guerrillas has been due to social and political cooptation. The last two governors, belonging to right-wing parties, are in prison for links to the ELN.
The left, threatened
Nelson Suárez walks through the Model Park of Saravena. He delivers an advertising magazine to a young couple:
– We bet on the formula of Gustavo Petro for the presidency and Francia Márquez for the vice presidency. Will I be able to convince them?
– He is the candidate that comes closest to my ideals.
– It’s!
He is 27 years old, studied Political Science at a public university in Bogotá, the capital, and returned to his municipality to work in the social sphere. He is a neighborhood leader and is coordinating the campaign of the leftist Historical Pact party in Saravena.
“We need the cessation of violence, but also that the causes that produce it be addressed, and the best candidate for this is Gustavo Petro,” he says.
From the right there are those who point out to him that he is in alliance with the guerrillas, by linking the political left with the founding left of said armed groups.
However, Nelson had to leave the department for two months, threatened by Antonio Medina, a leader of the FARC dissidents. He had declared as a target any person who smelled of social commitment, under the accusation of being in connection with the ELN.
With the 2016 peace agreement between the State and the FARC, the areas that remained free were occupied by the ELN. But with the irruption of the dissidents, they have been trying to regain control of the illegal trafficking routes that pass through Arauca to Venezuela.
This caused the start of a conflict between ELN and dissidents in 2019 in Venezuelan territory. Since January 2022, the clashes have crossed the Colombian border: more than 160 people have been killed in the first five months of the year in the department of Arauca.
get used to not get used to
In the middle of any conflict, there are always civilians. And with the will to live, the abnormal is normalized. In this context, Yehin Cañas, a merchant and local television presenter, organizes an event called “Cultura al Parque.”
It is Saturday morning and among the different events there is an entrepreneurship fair. Natural products for Afro hair are sold, passing through crafts based on plastic bags, and even stuffed arepas, food with which Arauca shakes hands with Venezuela.
Also concerts: traditional llanera music, Mexican rancheras and urban music, from rap to hip hop, with dance groups that play reggaeton.
Saravenenses come to this party, where the war is far away, at least for a while. Politics is also far away. For Yehin Cañas there are always promises, but the State never arrives or finishes negotiating with the armed groups: “It doesn’t matter left or right. We are tired of always the same.”
There is little expectation for the elections in Saravena; the clamor is for a new comprehensive peace agreement, which includes the ELN. A dream, like all, utopian, after decades of conflict, in which the people of Saraven had to get used to not getting used to it.
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