Colombia heads to polls amid resurgence of political violence

Mateo Pérez Rueda, a 24‑year‑old photojournalist who funded his work for the independent magazine El Confidente by doing delivery shifts and selling fruit salads, travelled to Briceño in Antioquia on 4 May to report on the long‑running conflict. He stopped responding the next day; after three days of anguish for his family, a humanitarian mission confirmed he had been kidnapped, tortured and killed by a Farc dissident group known as the 36th Front.

Rueda’s death has become a symbol of a surge in political violence that has reached its highest levels in a decade and made the internal armed conflict a central issue in Sunday’s presidential election. The vote pits competing approaches to the war: the leftwing senator Iván Cepeda, backed by outgoing president Gustavo Petro and champion of a “total peace” strategy of disarmament deals, and rightwing challengers such as Abelardo de la Espriella and Paloma Valencia who promise a return to all‑out war.

Colombia, Briceño, Antioquia

colombia, presidential election, political violence, journalist killing, farc dissident, 36th front, antioquia, iván cepeda, gustavo petro, total peace