Mayor Edilberto Molina (proper), alongside Lt. Col. Óscar Usme aboard a well-armed Colombian Navy boat, tour the Caguán River which flows previous Cartagena del Chairá.

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Mayor Edilberto Molina (proper), alongside Lt. Col. Óscar Usme aboard a well-armed Colombian Navy boat, tour the Caguán River which flows previous Cartagena del Chairá.

Carlos Saavedra for NPR

CARTAGENA DEL CHAIRÁ, Colombia — When Mayor Edilberto Molina strolled by way of this farm city in southern Colombia on a current morning, some residents have been astonished by the sight of him. Drug-trafficking guerrillas have threatened to kill Molina so many occasions that final 12 months he fled for his life.

He now manages Cartagena del Chairá largely by cellphone and teleconference from a close-by city and comes right here solely sporadically. He flies in on a military helicopter, surrounds himself with bodyguards, crams in dozens of occasions and conferences, bunks down at evening subsequent to the police station, then flies out.

Molina grew to become a goal after he ran afoul of guerrillas on this space, which is house to huge cattle ranches and fields of coca — the uncooked materials for cocaine. Besides drug trafficking, Molina says, the guerrillas reap large sums by extorting the city’s enterprise house owners — and its politicians.

To keep away from being ambushed by rebels on the highway out of city, Molina — who’s carrying a black backpack and climbing aboard the chopper — flies out and in of Cartagena del Chairá on military helicopters.

Harold García

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Harold García

To keep away from being ambushed by rebels on the highway out of city, Molina — who’s carrying a black backpack and climbing aboard the chopper — flies out and in of Cartagena del Chairá on military helicopters.

Harold García

“When I ran for mayor in 2019, the guerrillas demanded that I pay them 1 billion pesos,” about $285,000, Molina tells NPR at his spartan workplace in town’s central plaza, throughout a current two-week go to he made. “All of the previous mayors have had to pay off the guerrillas. I didn’t want to. So, I became a thorn in their side.”

After he was sworn in in 2020, guerrilla calls for for cash — and their threats when Molina refused — escalated. Finally, after military intelligence found a insurgent plan to bomb the city corridor final 12 months, Molina packed up his spouse and two younger kids and fled to the provincial capital of Florencia, 75 miles away.

He’s not the one Colombian politician compelled out by prison gangs. Over the previous three years, a dozen mayors have fled from their municipalities after being threatened, in line with Carlos Camargo, the Colombian authorities’s human rights ombudsman.

Molina, pictured along with his household, moved along with his spouse and two younger kids to the provincial capital of Florencia final 12 months after rebels threatened to bomb the city corridor.

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Molina, pictured along with his household, moved along with his spouse and two younger kids to the provincial capital of Florencia final 12 months after rebels threatened to bomb the city corridor.

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In probably the most harrowing case, Ider Álvarez, the mayor of the northern city of La Playa de Belén, narrowly escaped an ambush by gunmen in June by hiding inside an ambulance that finally drove him to security. He later fled Colombia.

Government officers and political analysts are sounding the alarm about insurgent violence forward of regional elections to be held Oct. 29, when Colombians will choose new mayors and governors. According to Camargo, there is a “high or extreme risk” that prison teams will intervene within the voting in 399 of Colombia’s 1,101 municipalities.

In many instances, these teams are demanding cash from candidates in trade for permitting them to hold out their political campaigns. They are additionally intimidating residents to drive their help of candidates the criminals contemplate allies, says Mauricio Vela of the Bogotá-based Electoral Observation Mission, an impartial group that displays the nation’s elections.

As he excursions Cartagena del Chairá, the mayor is surrounded by law enforcement officials and bodyguards.

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As he excursions Cartagena del Chairá, the mayor is surrounded by law enforcement officials and bodyguards.

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Because he leaves workplace on Jan. 1, Molina crams as many conferences and occasions into his schedule as potential, together with this go to to a soup kitchen for the aged.

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Because he leaves workplace on Jan. 1, Molina crams as many conferences and occasions into his schedule as potential, together with this go to to a soup kitchen for the aged.

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After a lot intimidation, many incoming mayors will really feel compelled to make use of a part of their city’s funds to repay these criminals, Vela says — leaving much less cash for avenue paving and different public works.

“It’s a huge problem for Colombia’s democracy,” Vela says. “It is the worst thing that can happen to a town.”

Overall safety has improved in Colombia, because of a 2016 peace treaty that disarmed the nation’s largest guerrilla group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia or FARC. However, ranges of violence are creeping again up as smaller insurgent factions throw their weight round, in line with Human Rights Watch.

For probably the most half, these teams keep away from confronting authorities troops and as a substitute concentrate on making a living by smuggling medication, illegally mining gold and extorting companies and public officers.

The mayor inside the house of a resident who needs him to pave the road that runs previous her home.

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The mayor inside the house of a resident who needs him to pave the road that runs previous her home.

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When Molina arrived again on the city corridor for the primary time in 4 months, he discovered this card with messages of help taped to the wall.

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When Molina arrived again on the city corridor for the primary time in 4 months, he discovered this card with messages of help taped to the wall.

Carlos Saavedra for NPR

President Gustavo Petro, a former left-wing guerrilla who disarmed and jumped into electoral politics within the early Nineteen Nineties, has introduced a collection of cease-fires with totally different insurgent teams, designed to guard civilians. His envoys are attempting to barter peace offers, however to date, there’s been little progress.

That has left cities like Cartagena del Chairá — house to 35,000 individuals and simply 30 law enforcement officials — susceptible. Aristo Rodríguez, Molina’s chief of employees, claims that everybody from cattle ranchers to motorcycle-taxi drivers makes extortion funds to the guerrillas.

“It’s an impossible situation,” he says.

Molina is without doubt one of the few mayors in Colombia prepared to loudly denounce insurgent blackmail, and he lists his causes for going public. For one factor, he says, guerrillas killed his father in 1986, when Molina was a 6-year-old little one. What’s extra, he grew up in Cartagena del Chairá and would not need to see his hometown utterly taken over by criminals.

Meetings between Molina and group leaders are sometimes tense. At this one, he accused them of spreading rumors that he’s corrupt — which led to extra loss of life threats from the guerrillas.

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Meetings between Molina and group leaders are sometimes tense. At this one, he accused them of spreading rumors that he’s corrupt — which led to extra loss of life threats from the guerrillas.

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A development employee on the city’s soccer stadium. Despite working the city from afar, Molina has managed to push ahead renovation of the stadium.

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A development employee on the city’s soccer stadium. Despite working the city from afar, Molina has managed to push ahead renovation of the stadium.

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“When I raise my voice, I’m not doing it just for myself,” Molina says. “I am trying to be a voice for all those people who are scared and intimidated and cannot speak out.”

Despite the dangers he is taken on, he says: “I like being a politician. It makes me feel alive.”

But which means he is continually on guard for insurgent reprisals. During his go to to Cartagena del Chairá final week, his first in 4 months, he was flanked by 4 bodyguards and two police escorts. He restricted his rounds to the city middle as a result of it was deemed too harmful to enterprise into rural areas.

Like most mayors, Molina receives each complaints and compliments. His time period in workplace coincided with the pandemic, which put many tasks on maintain.

Daisy Díaz is ready for the mayor to make good on his promise to pave the muddy avenue that runs in entrance of her home.

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Daisy Díaz is ready for the mayor to make good on his promise to pave the muddy avenue that runs in entrance of her home.

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As a bodyguard retains watch, Molina holds an outside assembly to debate public works tasks with neighborhood residents in Cartagena del Chairá.

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As a bodyguard retains watch, Molina holds an outside assembly to debate public works tasks with neighborhood residents in Cartagena del Chairá.

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Colombian mayors can’t run for instant reelection. So, earlier than his time period ends on Jan. 1, Molina is scrambling to perform what he can, together with constructing parks and renovating the soccer stadium.

But some issues slip by way of the cracks, says Daisy Díaz, a seamstress. She’s nonetheless ready for the mayor to make good on his promise to pave the muddy avenue in entrance of her home.

“The mayor needs to be here to take care of these projects,” she says. “They get delayed because he’s not here.”

Molina agrees.

Despite the various threats in opposition to the mayor, Héctor Pérez, a city council member, insists that he has had no run-ins with the rebels.

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Despite the various threats in opposition to the mayor, Héctor Pérez, a city council member, insists that he has had no run-ins with the rebels.

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“It’s hard to govern by long distance,” he says. “I can never go to ribbon-cutting ceremonies. The other day, I inaugurated a roller rink on a Zoom call.”

Another downside, Molina says, is that insurgent leaders drive city council members to attend clandestine conferences the place they’re bullied into opposing the mayor’s initiatives. For instance, he says council members not too long ago derailed his plan to renovate the city plaza.

Asked about insurgent interference on the town enterprise, one council member, Héctor Pérez, insisted to NPR that it was not an issue.

Campaign posters in Cartagena del Chairá. Voters right here and in the remainder of Colombia will choose new mayors and governors on Oct. 29 amid warnings that armed teams are interfering within the elections.

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Campaign posters in Cartagena del Chairá. Voters right here and in the remainder of Colombia will choose new mayors and governors on Oct. 29 amid warnings that armed teams are interfering within the elections.

Carlos Saavedra for NPR

Asked how he would react if he’s additionally threatened by the rebels, Darwin Florez, a mayoral candidate in Cartagena del Chairá, was evasive, saying that he’s centered on profitable and would take care of that situation as soon as he’s sworn-in.

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Asked how he would react if he’s additionally threatened by the rebels, Darwin Florez, a mayoral candidate in Cartagena del Chairá, was evasive, saying that he’s centered on profitable and would take care of that situation as soon as he’s sworn-in.

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Meanwhile, 4 candidates are campaigning to switch Molina — who predicts that the winner will face comparable pressures to repay the guerrillas.

One mayoral candidate, Darwin Florez, acknowledges the guerrillas’ presence within the area. When requested by NPR how he would take care of insurgent calls for to fork over a part of the city’s funds, Florez smiles and says: “For now, I’m just worried about winning. After that, I’ll figure the other things out.”

Early this month, after two tense weeks in his city, it was time for Molina to depart. So, to keep away from getting kidnapped or ambushed on the highway out, he known as the military, which, after a two-day delay, despatched in a helicopter.

Aerial shot of the Caguán River, which flows previous Cartagena del Chairá the place, in line with the mayor, almost each enterprise proprietor and politician is compelled to make extortion funds to the rebels.

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Aerial shot of the Caguán River, which flows previous Cartagena del Chairá the place, in line with the mayor, almost each enterprise proprietor and politician is compelled to make extortion funds to the rebels.

Carlos Saavedra for NPR

Molina climbed aboard, the chopper lifted off. And quickly his hometown was only a speck on the horizon.