SUAREZ: A presidential candidate has been assassinated, rebels have pipe?bombed a major city and a third of the country is considered unsafe for candidates — all making Colombia’s 2026 election campaign one of the most violent in decades.
Nowhere is that danger more palpable than in Cauca, where a silver armored SUV hurries along a mountain track, watched by rifle-wielding guerrillas.
Every second spent along the route is a risk for passenger Esneyder Gomez, a 46-year-old Indigenous candidate hoping to win election to Colombia’s Congress on March 8.
Neatly groomed and driven by anger about the treatment of his Nasa minority, Gomez is hunting for votes in a rebel?controlled region of Colombia’s lawless southwest.
The danger is real. He has been threatened by the guerrilla for a decade. A few months ago his vehicle was shot up as he returned from a political event.
