In the municipality of Suárez (Cauca), where Francia Márquez is from, the pandemic wreaked havoc. Salud Hernández visited him and what she saw surprised her: “he is a powder keg,” she said.
From the district of La Toma, which used to live from the artisanal exploitation of gold, today only memories remain. Currently, it subsists on illicit crops.
On their tour of the area, the residents told the journalist that many children have gone to “scratches” and as a result have abandoned the classrooms. In addition, they also explained that the peasants, who used to hide their crops, now find it normal to have them on their plot.
Salud tried to enter, at all costs, the village of Betulia, the place where Karina García (who was a mayoral candidate at the time), her mother and four companions were murdered a year ago, but they were not allowed.
The journalist wanted to know why, in this part of the country, growing coca became such a prominent job. But she mightn’t do it. On the way, she was intercepted by guerrillas, one of whom was barely 11 years old and all of them were carrying weapons. “They put me in his truck and took me to his commander,” she says.
In addition, a commander of the structure, Jaime Martínez, made her accompany him to a specific point, to tell him that he might not continue because they knew he “spoke ill of them.” But this did not prevent him from seeing that in the town there were images in homage to the anniversary of the death of Manuel Marulanda, alias Tirofijo.
He also tried to visit other places, but the guard prevented him. “It is worrying that every day, journalists who do reporting, have to overcome more obstacles,” he warned and recalled that in this case it was not only the armed groups.
In Suárez, they say that organizations outside the law have come together to campaign for Francia Márquez. “Some don’t like the candidate, but they think that if she won she would help her people. They want them to never forget where she came from.”
