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Colombian elections

Fear is a feeling that has preceded nearly every Colombian elections, although the electoral violence experienced as never happened before.

64 years ago, for example, Colombia's army received a cabled order "to avoid bloody conflict ... and send army municipalities Bolivar coming elections." This was neither the first nor the last time. "Two years ago, nearly 150 municipalities had requested the cooperation of the police with similar objectives," says historian Eduardo Posada Carbo.

This year's election violence in the northern department of Bolivar led the authorities to ban the carrying of weapons until November 3.

Measures are extreme surveillance in the rest of Colombia, especially in the departments of Tolima, Antioquia, Cauca, Huila, Sucre, Santander, Cesar and Atlantic, among others. Some 135,000 public forces personnel ensure regional elections this October 28.

32 elected governors in departments, 1,098 municipal mayors, 398 members of the departmental assemblies and 12,300 councilors for periods ending in 2011. More than 86,000 candidates are competing for just 18,332 jobs in municipalities, governorates, municipal councils and departmental assemblies in a bitter and violent dispute that has as background the interests of illegal armed groups, left and far right, criminal gangs and so on.