\n Colombia's bid to bring former guerrillas into the political fold faces a major test at Sunday's legislative elections, as ex-FARC fighters struggle to win over voters.\n<\/p>\n
\n Sandra Ramirez, 63, smiles and cuts a friendly figure as she dances, waves flags, and gives speeches canvassing for votes in Bogota.\n<\/p>\n
\n Just a few years ago she was better known as Griselda Lobo, or Wolf, a left-wing guerrilla leader and partner of the feared Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) founder and top commander Manuel \"Sure Shot\" Marulanda.\n<\/p>\n
\n Ramirez has been a Colombian senator since 2018, but has not yet had to win a single vote.\n<\/p>\n
\n Her party of ex-fighters was granted 10 seats in the Senate and Congress as part of a 2016 peace deal designed to bring ex-combatants into the political mainstream.\n<\/p>\n
\n Although some dissident guerrilla groups remain active, the deal brought about a transformation for Colombia -- about 13,000 fighters and collaborators demobilized and returned to civilian life.\n<\/p>\n
\n But on Sunday, the electoral arrangement effectively comes to an end.\n<\/p>\n
\n After more than half a century of trying and failing to seize power by force, these ex-guerrillas-turned-politicos will live or die by the ballot.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Scraping for votes has not been easy,\" Ramirez told AFP on the campaign trail.\n<\/p>\n
\n The party, Comunes, has garnered less than one percent of the vote in past elections.\n<\/p>\n
\n Even if another ex-guerrilla, Gustavo Petro, won the presidency in 2022 by leading a broad left-wing coalition, after decades of bloody armed conflict, many Colombians are not ready to forgive and forget.\n<\/p>\n
\n Ramirez still faces insults from voters who reject her guerrilla past and accuse her of war crimes like recruiting minors.\n<\/p>\n
\n Her party leader, ex-FARC commander Rodrigo Londonno, \"Timochenko,\" was recently found responsible for more than 21,000 kidnappings.\n<\/p>\n
\n Ramirez even avoids her own party's logos.\n<\/p>\n
\n There is still an \"irreconcilable tension\" between right-wing opponents of the peace deal and candidates like Ramirez, said Rafael Quishpe, a researcher at the University of Giessen.\n<\/p>\n
\n Comunes will need at least 750,000 of 41 million votes to continue to be recognised as a political party. Even that might be a stretch.\n<\/p>\n
\n Political violence has darkened this campaign season, which has been the most violent in decades and has seen numerous attacks on candidates.\n<\/p>\n
\n Presidential frontrunner and right-wing senator Miguel Uribe was assassinated last year while campaigning.\n<\/p>\n
\n Ramirez's dissident former allies are among the suspects.\n<\/p>\n
\n But 10 years after the accords and in the face of electoral doom, Ramirez and most demobilized fighters say they remain committed to peace.\n<\/p>\n
\n Despite the difficulties, the party \"will continue,\" she said, albeit without \"giant steps.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n \"The eight years in Congress were worth it\", she said, if only to end the \"long night of war.\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Colombia's bid to bring former guerrillas into the political fold faces a major test at Sunday's legislative elections, as ex-FARC fighters struggle to win over voters. Sandra Ramirez, 63, smiles and cuts a friendly figure as she dances, waves flags, and gives speeches canvassing for votes in Bogota. Just a few years ago she was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-156000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n