Death risk haunts Colombia poll
>>BOGOTA: Every time Colombian leftist presidential candidate Gustavo Petro, who leads opinion polls, steps out in public the scene is striking: he is surrounded by a wall of nervous-looking bodyguards brandishing bullet-proof shields.
The spectre of assassination is haunting the electoral campaign in which the left has a real chance of taking power for the first time in a country that has a history of political careers ending in a hail of bullets.
In the 20th century, five presidential candidates were assassinated by opponents, drug traffickers or paramilitaries working in complicity with the state.
Three were from the left or far left, and the other two were liberals.
The country was gripped by more than five decades of conflict between the state and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) that ended with a 2016 peace deal.
And while the level of violence has dropped since then, Colombia remains wracked by a multi-faceted conflict involving drug traffickers and a multitude of armed groups.
“The spectre of death accompanies us,” Mr Petro said in February. “It does not stop appearing to me like a flash, when I’m in a crowd, when I’m on a platform and there is a full square, someone could shoot from anywhere.”
Earlier this month, the 62-year-old senator, a former left-wing guerrilla, had to call off a public appearance after his team received “first-hand information” about an assassination plot by two paramilitaries.
Two days later he did appear in the northern city of Cucuta behind the bullet-proof shields.
His 60-strong bodyguard has since been beefed up while local security forces have provided extra officers for his numerous trips to provincial areas that have contributed to his campaign.
His running mate Francia Marquez, a black environmentalist, has also received threats.
Conservative candidate Federico Gutierrez has spoken of his concern, not just for Mr Petro but also himself, having claimed to have been threatened by the Marxist National Liberation Army (ELN), the last remaining recognised rebel group in the country.
“Take care of Federico Gutierrez,” said former president Alvaro Uribe, who escaped a Farc assassination attempt using explosives in 2002.
“If we hope to run the country, we need to be capable of looking after our own security,” he added.
The outgoing President Ivan Duque said Mr Petro “is one of the best protected people” in the country.