Rebels' brazen bid to paralyze Colombia
By Martin Hodgson | Special to The Christian Science Monitor
HOBO, COLOMBIA - Peering around the neatly painted metal door, municipal
planning secretary Liliana Marquinez politely explains that
the town hall will not be open for business today. Or tomorrow. Or at any
moment in the foreseeable future.
Local government in this sun-baked Andean village has been paralyzed since Marxist rebels ordered 20 town officials to resign or die.
In the past month, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC,
has explicitly warned local officials – including mayors,
councilors, and judges – in 200 towns that they would be declared "military
targets" if they fail to step down.
Now, the 17,000-strong guerrilla faction is systematically extending the
death threat to every one of the country's 1,098 municipalities, in a
concerted attempt to destroy the Colombian state from the ground up. It's
an open challenge to President-elect Alvaro Uribe, who won a
land- slide election victory in May by promising to crack down on FARC.
Mr. Uribe, who takes office on Aug. 7, has pledged to double military spending and take the battle to the rebels.
But this FARC offensive strikes at the weakest point in the chain of government,
highlighting both the frailty of the Colombian state and the
challenges which the US-backed government faces in its campaign against
the scattered but locally powerful rebel army.
"This is a game of chess: to get the king you first take out the pawns,"
says Marlio Peralta, who last week resigned as mayor of Santa
Maria, three hours north of Hobo.
According to Gilberto Toro of the Federation of Municipalities in Bogotá,
about 100 mayors – half of the roughly 200 who were warned by
FARC – have refused to bow to the intimidation, but many officials say
they cannot afford to ignore the risks. Those in outlying regions say
they feel particularly vulnerable.
A mounting toll
Since the first threats were made in mid-June, FARC gunmen have murdered
one mayor and abducted three more, including one who
escaped only by throwing himself into an icy mountain river and swimming
underwater to avoid a hail of rebel bullets.
In Hobo, the ultimatum came in late May, when a local FARC commander called
Mayor James Lozada at his office, and gave him 72 hours
to step down.
"He said it was nothing personal, but these people don't make empty threats. We know that this is serious," says Mr. Lozada.
Colombia's rural mayors have long been easy targets for both the rebels
and right-wing paramilitary groups. In the past three years, the
warring factions have killed an average of one mayor every month, but the
recent FARC offensive has brought unprecedented political and
social fallout.
"The mayor is very important in rural areas – he is the link between the
state and the citizen," says Tatiana Serrato, secretary of state for
the Huila region, which includes Hobo and Santa Maria.
A town in paralysis
Without a mayor to sign contracts and allot funding, Hobo's school canteen
has been forced to close, the health center is running out of
drugs, and patients who need to use the town ambulance must first pay to
fill the gas tank.
Locals have started their own rubbish collection service, charging 15 cents
for every household, but they have been unable to combat an
epidemic of dengue fever spreading through the village of 6,000 people.
"With one phone call they paralyzed everything," says Betty Sanchez, who
runs the town's old people's home. The hostel, which depended
on town hall funding, once housed 75 senior citizens, but since the rebel
ultimatum Mrs. Sanchez has had to send most of them to stay
with local families.
"We have to beg for money to buy drugs. If this goes on, we'll have to close down completely in the next couple of weeks," she says.
Analysts say that with its latest campaign, the FARC is sending a message
that US-backed government forces are still unable to control
huge swaths of the country.
In recent years, US aid in the form of training, satellite intelligence,
and air support has helped the military win back the initiative on the
battlefield, but when a fruitless three-year peace process finally collapsed
in February, the rebels rapidly switched to a new set of
hit-and-run tactics.
"In terms of hardware, intelligence, and political support, the state has
more capacity to fight, but the insurgents still have a great capacity
to destabilize the country. They're trying to prove that the state cannot
win a military victory" says Marco Romero, a political scientist at
Bogotá's National University.
Since its inception in 1964, the FARC has rarely tried to consolidate or
defend its own territory, but rebel influence is deeply entrenched in
the jungles and mountains of the country's most underdeveloped regions.
In Huila, there are police or army troops stationed in every major town,
but locals say that the security forces rarely venture beyond their
own heavily defended bunkers.
Public servants find themselves at the mercy of local rebel commanders,
who often demand a veto over local policy – and a portion of the
local budgets.
'They have to go'
The rebels, meanwhile, denounce local politics as another example of the
political corruption and exclusion that they claim as justification
for their campaign against the state.
Town mayors have been elected by popular vote only since 1986 – previously
they were appointed by national party bosses – and local
administrations are still notorious for vote-rigging and contract kickbacks.
"Elected or not, the mayors still represent the interests of the traditional
political parties. They have to go," says Andres, a FARC activist in
Bogotá. He adds that in some regions, the guerrillas are encouraging
communities to form their own social and economic policies in
readiness for a new state to be born after a final rebel victory.
National government officials have urged local leaders to stand firm –
or at least to continue working from the relative safety of the regional
capitals.
The government has offered bodyguards, bulletproof vests, and cellphones
to all the beleaguered mayors, and US ambassador Anne
Patterson has offered places in a protection scheme designed for union
activists, journalists, and those in other high-risk professions.
In Huila's second largest city, Pitalito, German Calderon ignored the FARC's
deadline to resign on June 25, and since then five army
bodyguards accompany him 24 hours a day.
"The principles of democracy and the dignity of the people are at stake.
We cannot give in to the threats, because that would be giving up
the will of the people," he says.
Mayor Calderon freely admits that he is scared, but insists that his duty remains with the community that elected him.
"Fear is constant in Colombia. But taking public office implies certain
risks, and they are risks we must take, or the violence will smash the
hopes of our people," he says.
Arguing that he cannot accept a resignation made under duress, the Huila
state governor has officially refused to let any of the region's
mayors step down.
Back in the sun-bleached streets of Hobo, most villagers still address
Lozada as "Mr. Mayor," but his office is closed. He hopes his
symbolic resignation will be enough to save him from the rebel death sentence.
"Until the governor accepts my resignation properly, I'm still the mayor,"
he says. "I'm mayor in name, but I'm not really doing anything."