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.