Latin America
Related: About this forumColombia elections: Candidates face spate of violence
Seven candidates have been killed and more than 60 others have been attacked in the lead up to the October 27 election.
Steven Grattan by Steven Grattan
16 minutes ago
Jhon Jairo Vasquez shows the bullet holes on the front door of his house. He had covered them with campaign stickers to not draw to attention to the violent event [Steven Grattan/Al Jazeera]
Caucasia, Colombia - Nine bullet holes dot the front door and window of Jhon Jairo Vasquez's home in the northern town of Caucasia in Colombia's Bajo Cauca region.
Gunmen opened fire on September 11 at 1:30am. It was the day after the 53-year-old local incumbent councillor held a campaign rally, where he spoke against criminal groups and coca production - the base ingredient for cocaine - in the region.
Vasquez said has not slept well since the attack.
"I'm taking sedatives. I've become depressed, but trying to keep going," he told Al Jazeera inside his humble home, where holes from ricocheted bullets mark the walls, many just outside his bedroom where he was sleeping at the time of the attack.
More:
https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/colombia-elections-candidates-face-spate-violence-191010164945436.html
KatyMan
(4,209 posts)But Judi Lynn, you are an absolute jewel on DU, I follow so many of your posts and look forward to them every day. Thank you so much!
ETA, if I've said this before, well, it needed said again
Judi Lynn
(160,621 posts)especially the ones on Latin America which I KNOW our corporate media always totally ignore. If you were to take their word for things as I did, for years, you would have such a distorted, stupid, childish view of the Americas outside the U.S., you would have absolutely no idea whatsoever has happened there throughout your entire life.
What we have heard is usually wrong, due to the intensive perception molding carefully managed for the masses.
I totally love looking for information, and it's not nearly good enough if I don't post it so others know, too.
Thank you, so much.
It's a real energizer, and moving, to have seen your kind message.