About 9.5 million of Colombia's 20.4 million registered voters cast ballots in regional and local elections held on Oct. 27. National Election Commissioner Orlando Abello confirmed on Oct. 28 that voting was not held in 20 of Colombia's 1,072 municipalities; reporters sent into rebel-dominated zones said more than 150 towns did not vote. [Miami Herald 10/28/97; El Universal (Venezuela) 10/28/97] The government played up the turnout as a victory against leftist rebels, who had held an armed strike to enforce a boycott of the elections. [Washington Post 10/28/97] The 53% abstention was somewhat lower than in recent years, although not dramatically. Abstention in Colombian elections has generally ranged from 40% to 60%; it reached a high of 70% in the legislative elections of March 1994 [see Update #216]. [Clarin 10/25/97]
The ruling Liberal Party won 75% of the governorships and 50% of the mayoral posts in Colombia's 32 departments, although it lost the departmental governments of Antioquia, Santander, Norte de Santander and Choco. The opposition Conservative Party went from holding 18% of the regional governments to 9%, winning in only four departments, while coalitions won in seven. The leftist Patriotic Union (UP), M-19 Democratic Alliance, and the Socialist Renewal Current (CRS) lost several of the regional posts they had won in the 1994 elections. [El Diario-La Prensa 11/2/97 from Notimex] Liberal Party member Enrique Penalosa, who ran on the ticket of the independent "For the Bogota that we love" movement, won as mayor of Bogota. The Citizen's Mandate for Peace, a non- binding referendum on an end to violence in Colombia, won with 95% "yes" votes. [ED-LP 11/2/97]
The National Liberation Army (ELN) reports that the director of the Free Country Foundation, one of the nongovernmental organizations that sponsored the Mandate for Peace, is Francisco Santos, brother of presidential candidate Juan Manuel Santos and co-owner of the Bogota daily El Tiempo. According to the ELN, El Tiempo reported on Oct. 28 that companies financing the ballot initiative included British Petroleum [linked to human rights violations--see Update #355], which donated more than $53,000; Occidental, which contributed just under $2,000; and Shell Oil, which gave only $350. [ELN Especial del Magdalena for the 2nd half of October, posted on http://www.voces.org/info/farsa]
On Nov. 1, the ELN freed two observers from the Organization of American States (OAS) and a Colombian government official who it had kidnapped on Oct. 23 [see Update #404]. The rebels released Chilean Raul Martinez and Guatemalan Manfredo Marroquin, along with Colombian Juan Diego Arcila, to three delegates of the National Conciliation Commission and three representatives of the International Red Cross in the town of Santa Ana, Antioquia department. [ED-LP 11/2/97 from EFE]
Parts of the dismembered body of Colombian journalist Alejandro Jaramillo were identified on Oct. 31 in the city of Pasto in southwestern Colombia. The 67-year old Jaramillo had been deputy director of Diario del Sur from two months ago until he disappeared on Oct. 24; his head and torso, severed with a chainsaw, were found a week later. His extremities have not yet been found. Jaramillo, who specialized in legal news, had worked in the city of Cali for the newspapers El Pais, El Caleno and Occidente, and as editor of the newspaper Extra in Quito, Ecuador. He had survived two other attacks, one in Cali and one in Bogota. [ED-LP 11/2/97 from AP]
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