Colombia's freedoms are threatened by a campaign of far-right lies
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Version 0 of 1. According to the most recent polls, former president Álvaro Uribe and his puppet, Óscar Iván Zuluaga, will win the elections on Saturday. His campaign, deceitful but effective, will bring the far right to power in Colombia, actively assisted by the utopian, Chavist left – represented by the bard William Ospina – and assisted (through blank votes) by the Maoist left, represented by senator Jorge Enrique Robledo. Zuluaga is Uribe's puppet in much the same way that Dimitri Medvedev was Vladimir Putin's when he placed Medvedev in the Kremlin while he (briefly) stood down. As an Italian politician once said, power corrupts those who do not have it, as they are prepared to do whatever it takes to regain it. The strategy of lying has worked and everything seems to indicate that most Colombians have fallen for these tall campaign tales and so will return Uribe to power and, with him, the most fanatical representatives of the Colombian far-right. Because, if we don't pinch ourselves before we vote, something even more serious than lies will triumph in these elections: a backlash against the most precious gains of freedom in recent times. In fact, part of this far right has already taken control of one of the state's most important departments. It is there that an ally of Uribe-Zuluaga, Alejandro Ordóñez, Colombia's Inspector General (akin to a US attorney general) is fighting what they consider a Catholic crusade against liberalism and modernity. Among the rights they do not support and would like removed are such fundamental things as birth control, gender equality and sex education in schools and others, such as gay marriage, that are still battles we are far from winning. Another element of the far right that looks set to gain is represented by the guild of cattle farmers, headed by José Félix Lafaurie, who still defends feudal land ownership privileges. Lafaurie was cleared by his friend the Inspector General of having been among those who bribed an ex-minister to change her vote so as to ensure Uribe's re-election. Lafaurie does not deny that he financed paramilitaries although, he makes clear, only as a way to protect himself from guerrilla groups. According to the great lie repeated a thousand times by the Uribistas, president Santos is going to lead us into "Castro-Chavismo", a kind of communist cocktail – half Castro, half Chávez. What they fail to explain is why, since this has not happened in the last four years, it will do so in the next four. Without providing facts or figures, they claim we are headed for a Venezuelan-style catastrophe, and for the Maoists, towards a neo-liberal one: the incredible thing is that voters take as gospel two completely opposing lies, although it is because of these lies that millions vote for Zuluaga, or don't vote at all, or spoil their vote. I know that Uribe and Zuluaga are not the same as the neo-Nazis who have attached themselves to their campaign by way of the Inspector General and certain members of congress. But they do represent the worst of the Antioquia region: key drivers of the convivir, the government-sanctioned auto-defence groups of the 1990s, beneficiaries of the drug traffickers who raised the prices of their land, and landowners who sympathised with the convivir groups. They are the worst my region has given the country. Uribe has anointed Zuluaga, and because of his surname his PR people have dubbed him Z for Zorro, which is why popular wisdom calls his followers zorros, or foxes. Now we must choose between a Santos, who is no saint (though nor is he a devil), and a Zuluaga, who is indeed very fox-like in the sense of being cunning, as cunning as his mentor, the mendacious Uribe. A wise queen of England once said that one ought not to judge men by their hearts, which are always obscure, but through their actions; and Santos's actions as president have generally been good, or more good than bad. The social and economic achievements speak for themselves, while Uribe-Zuluaga supporters try to disprove it with lies and the left by over-reacting and exaggerating. These last four years have been much better for Colombia than Uribe's last four were, when everything was fraught, tense, frenetic, bordering on criminal, the very best hunting environment for Zorro the fox. If Santos, for whom I plan to vote, wins, I sincerely believe the country will be better off than if the zorros do. I will vote for him convinced, without wincing, because he has run a sober, if not entirely effective, administration. I have seen this once before and – for those who always suspect ulterior motives, I have not received, nor do I plan on receiving, any kind of bribe. And if the zorros win, as seems to be equally likely at the moment (the latest polls I have seen suggest a very close tie), a chapter of fear and uncertainty will begin. Will Zuluaga the fox govern by following to the letter the instructions of his mentor and his most shadowy allies? If he governs with them, the country will be pushed over the edge and we will live through years of hatred and butchery. Even those of us on the centre could succumb in the anti-Communist crusade. But if Zuluaga is so like a fox that he has been able to hide in the right-wingers' shadow while governing like an honourable conservative – they do exist – like a decent conservative, and not a vindictive, bloodthirsty fanatic, there will be hope of surviving. Now, whoever wins, the fear and the anger are over. It is time for facts and hope. The proof will be in the pudding. Héctor Abad is a Colombian novelist and journalist. His award-winning 2006 book Oblivion: A Memoir recounts his father's fight for social justice and his subsequent death at the hands of paramilitaries in Medellín in 1987. A version of this article appears in today's edition of Colombia's El Espectador |