Colombia will head to the polls Sunday to elect President Gustavo Petro's successor. File Photo by Tannen Maury/UPI | License Photo
May 29 (UPI) -- Colombia will head to the polls Sunday to elect its next president under an unprecedented security deployment that includes 246,000 members of the security forces and 386 municipalities under alert because of armed violence.
More than 41 million voters are eligible to choose the successor to President Gustavo Petro in an election that underscores the increasingly polarized political landscape across Latin America.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights this Friday expressed concern over incidents of political violence reported during the campaign. The commission urged Colombian authorities to take all necessary measures to guarantee the final stage of the presidential election process, particularly the safety of presidential candidates.
The government confirmed it had strengthened security measures for presidential campaigns, party leaders and regional political figures in some of the country's most vulnerable areas.
