Colombia - Elections - 2014
Colombia is a constitutional, multi-party republic. On June 15, voters re-elected Juan Manuel Santos president in elections that observers considered free and fair. Authorities generally maintained effective control over security forces. The country’s decades-long internal armed conflict involving government forces and two terrorist guerrilla groups (FARC and ELN) continued. Multiple abuses occurred in the context of the conflict and narcotics trafficking. The government continued formal peace negotiations with the FARC throughout the year, and in June it announced plans to open formal peace negotiations with the ELN.
The most serious human rights problems were impunity, an inefficient judiciary, forced displacement, corruption, and societal discrimination. An inefficient justice system subject to intimidation limited the state’s ability to prosecute effectively individuals accused of human rights abuses, including former members of paramilitary groups. The availability of drug-trafficking revenue often exacerbated corruption. Societal discrimination against indigenous persons and Afro-Colombians at times restricted the ability of these groups to exercise their rights.
Illegal armed groups--including the terrorist organizations Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN), as well as organized crime groups (some of which contained some former paramilitary members)--committed numerous abuses, including the following: political killings; killings of members of the public security forces and local officials; widespread use of land mines and improvised explosive devices (IEDs); kidnappings and forced disappearances; sexual and gender-based violence; subornation and intimidation of judges, prosecutors, and witnesses; infringement on citizens’ privacy rights; restrictions on freedom of movement; widespread recruitment and use of child soldiers; attacks against human rights activists; and killings, harassment, and intimidation of teachers and trade unionists. Illegal armed groups continued to be responsible for most instances of forced displacement in the country. Some private entities violated labor rights.
During the year the government held congressional and presidential elections. Juan Manuel Santos won a second four-year term as president in elections that the OAS electoral observation mission considered generally free and fair. The OAS mission noted the elections involved the lowest levels of violence in 38 years. The Electoral Observation Mission (MOE), an independent election monitoring NGO, reported that through June no political candidates were killed, two were attacked, one was kidnapped, and six were threatened, for a total of nine incidents of “political violence.”
According to the NGO New Rainbow Foundation, electoral fraud remained a serious concern. The NGO reported that parties paid voters to register and vote in municipalities in which they were not resident. The foundation claimed six parties’ rosters for House of Representatives elections and eight parties’ rosters for Senate elections included candidates with financial ties to illegal groups. The MOE estimated the areas with the highest proportion of irregular voters were the departments of Cordoba, Sucre, Bolivar, Atlantico, Meta, Casanare, Choco, and Valle del Cauca. The government continued the use of a new finance tool to ensure transparency of campaign funds, disqualified candidates with pending criminal investigations, and canceled the national identification cards of voters who could not demonstrate residence or employment in the municipality where they were registered to vote.
Two former New Rainbow Foundation employees, Ariel Avila and Leon Valencia, as well as journalist Gonzalo Guillen and activist Claudia Lopez (now a senator), who coauthored the NGO’s report on political party corruption and alleged ties to illegal armed groups, continued to receive death threats. Investigations continued into former La Guajira governor Francisco Gomez for his alleged involvement in the death threats, for links to former paramilitary groups, and for involvement in various killings.
Organized criminal gangs and the FARC threatened and killed government officials. According to the National Federation of Municipal Councils, four municipal council members were killed through August 9. Some local officials resigned because of threats from the FARC. Through July the National Protection Unit (NPU), under the Ministry of Interior, had provided protection to 279 mayors, seven governors, and 4,504 other persons, including members of departmental assemblies, council members, judges, municipal human rights officers known as “personeros,” and other officials related to national human rights policies. A 2012 decree stipulates that the CNP’s protection program and the NPU assume shared responsibility for protecting municipal and district mayors.
According to the preliminary results, the National Unity coalition retained the majority in both houses of Congress. It took a total of 119 seats in the 166-member House of Representatives and 65 seats in the 102-member Senate. The coalition comprises President Juan Manuel Santos' Social Party of National Unity (Partido de la U), the Conservative Party (CP), the Liberal Party (PL) and the Radical Change (RC). The Democratic Centre, led by former President Álvaro Uribe, took 19 seats in the House and 20 in the Senate.
The ongoing peace talks between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) were a central issue in the election campaign. In November 2013, the government started peace talks with the FARC, while stating that its military operations would continue until a final deal was reached. Former President Uribe?s Democratic Centre campaigned under the slogan "No to impunity", opposing any peace agreement that would grant amnesty to FARC members or allow them to enter politics.
In the run-off presidential elections held on 15 June, President Santos was re-elected President for a second term, defeating Óscar Iván Zuluaga (Democratic Centre).
The law requires that women fill at least 30 percent of appointed government positions, that candidate lists consist of at least 30 percent women, and that the government report to congress each year the percentage of women in high-level government positions. There were 23 women elected to the 102-member Senate and 33 women elected to the 166-member House of Representatives. There were five women in the 16-member cabinet and five on the 23-member Supreme Court of Justice.
Two indigenous senators and one indigenous member of the House of Representatives occupied seats reserved for indigenous persons. There were no indigenous persons in the cabinet or on any of the high courts. An August reform of the internal structure of the Administrative Department of the Presidency eliminated the Presidential Program for Indigenous Affairs. There were nine self-identified Afro-Colombian members of the House of Representatives. Although there were no seats reserved for Afro-Colombians in the Senate, there were two Afro-Colombian senators. There were no Afro-Colombian cabinet ministers, but one Afro-Colombian woman continued in her post as the high presidential advisor for women’s equality. An August reform of the internal structure of the Administrative Department of the Presidency eliminated the Presidential Program for Afro-Colombian Affairs.
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