Four years ago, before Colombian President Alvaro Uribe started his crackdown on Marndean farming town of Viota could hardly make a move without permission from local guerrilla leaders.
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, controlled access to and from town and micromanaged everything down to the brand of beer that local merchants sold.
Starting in the early 1990s the rebels used this area to house kidnap victims snatched from the capital, Bogota, about a two-hour drive north. Local police who ventured more than a block from their station in those days risked being shot.
Uribe, the first president in memory to take hands-on responsibility for security matters in this country ravaged by four decades of guerrilla war, ordered the army to retake Viota in early 2003, less than a year into his presidency.
Police now patrol the streets freely. People sip whatever kind of beer they want in the town's open-air cafeterias and when they talk about politics, most talk of re-electing Uribe in Sunday's presidential vote.
"It's 90 percent better and we hope it continues," said local hotel owner Maria Tellez.
Viota's turnaround exemplifies why more than half of voters throughout Colombia tell pollsters they want to vote Uribe into a second four-year term in this Sunday's election.
About half the country's 41 million people still live in poverty and thousands are killed every year in the crossfire between the FARC and far-right paramilitaries as the groups battle for control of Colombia's lucrative cocaine trade.
But Uribe, who has brought police to hundreds of towns that had no law enforcement before, is a hero to many who thank him for making their lives safer.
His supporters tend to shrug off opposition allegations that he is too cozy with the paramilitaries, who were formed by landowners in the 1980s to combat the guerrillas and are guilty of some of the worst atrocities of the conflict.
Business is booming at Tellez's 24-room Juan Sebastian Hotel, as tourists return to visit nearby scenic rivers and truck drivers needing a night's rest are free to travel the roads with less fear of being hijacked.
Next door to the hotel is a storefront office of the leftist Democratic Pole party, where even the party faithful admit that Uribe's security policies have made life safer and more democratic.
"For the first time in years we are able to work openly here as a political party," said volunteer Alex Enciso, a local shoemaker.
Pole candidate Carlos Gaviria trails badly in the polls.
Across the street is a sign in a market window saying, "Adelante Presidente," or "Keep Going Mr President," a campaign slogan made possible after Congress changed the constitution in 2004 to allow Uribe to seek re-election.
Viota was a historic center of support for Colombia's Communist Party, which no longer wields much power even though socialist slogans crop up often in conversation with townspeople.
"The people here still have communist ideas stuck in their heads and that is very hard to get rid of," said local priest Carlos Ortiz, whose brown- and beige-painted church is the tallest building in town.
Comments
Comments are closed.