Leading a city that has become a battlefield - Gloria Cuartas Montoya of Apartado, Colombia - Cover Story

National Catholic Reporter, Jan 24, 1997 by Tom Boswell

Mayors in the United States often hear complaints that they are on the road too often and neglecting city business. But when the mayor is Gloria Cuartas Montoya and the city is Apartado, Colombia, travel may be a strategy for staying alive.

Cuartas, 36, was elected two years ago, chosen as a consensus candidate by various political parties, business and civic interests and the Catholic church. It was hoped that her election might bring peace to this city of 100,000, terrorized by civilian death squads, various guerrilla factions and the Colombian armed forces.

The two previous mayors, leaders of the persecuted Patriotic Union -- UP -- party, are in prison in Bogota, charged with being "intellectual authors" of a January 1994 massacre in Apartado. The mayor before that, Diana Estela Cardona, was assassinated by her bodyguard in 1990.

Cuartas is a social worker who has specialized in helping communities like Apartado, burdened by poverty and violence. Earlier this year, she received national recognition as Colombian Woman of the Year.

When I met her in Apartado, she had just returned from a conference on human rights in Guatemala. Cuartas seemed both tense and tired as she explained that the city council did not condone her travels on behalf of Apartado.

"I feel that council members don't want me to share the truth of what's happening here," she said.

One council member said bluntly, "All the things she's talking about are great, I love her, but that does not erase the concrete fact that people are being killed. A lot of information has gone out, but we really haven't seen any result. We're tired of killing. We're tired of widows. We're tired of orphans. We want it to end."

Several councilors complained that they wanted more direct supervision of the city's administration, but Cuartas counters that her power to govern has been usurped by the armed forces and the paramilitary. She feels that support from the international community is the only hope for her beleaguered city.

"I think that my only duty is to defend life," Cuartas insists. During her two years in office, 13 people from her staff and two city council members have been killed.

Last Aug 21, as Cuartas spoke in a school in preparation for a week of peace education, a paramilitary unit killed and decapitated an 8-year-old boy playing in the schoolyard. Fighting then erupted between the paramilitary and guerrillas, Cuartas said. "When the shooting stopped, the children themselves took me to a house and hid me under a bed and protected me."

A two-year epidemic of violence has jeopardized the political consensus that elected Cuartas. All local leadership of the UP has been killed or forced to seek refuge in Medellin, Cuartas said. She said this kind of intimidation is a systematic policy on the part of the right to annihilate all opposition.

Although the UP accomplished numerous public works projects, Cuartas and city councilors agree that it saddled the current government with a large debt and failed to educate citizens about their responsibility to pay taxes.

Cuartas is skeptical that the U.S. government can play any positive role in Colombia. Economic sanctions would not be helpful, she said, while military aid for the war on drugs is only helping the armed forces consolidate control over the country.

"It's not just or right that the U.S. supports the action against the narcos when, in regions like ours, the help that is being given to the military is contributing to crimes against humanity."

When asked how she finds the strength to carry on, Cuartas responded, "I have a very strong belief in God. I have a special vocation to live out the teachings of the evangelists, working with the most poor and with a commitment to justice."