PIEN HUANG, HOST:
In Colombia, the government's quest to disarm drug trafficking guerillas may be paying off, but it may be too late. The front-running candidate in today's presidential election runoff has pledged to end negotiations with criminal groups. John Otis reports.
UNIDENTIFIED TROOP LEADER: (Non-English language spoken).
UNIDENTIFIED TROOPS: (Non-English language spoken).
JOHN OTIS, BYLINE: A rebel leader barks orders to his troops here in the jungles of southern Colombia.
UNIDENTIFIED TROOP LEADER: (Non-English language spoken).
OTIS: Patches on their uniforms identify them as Comandos de la Frontera, or the Border Commandos. The group has some 1,000 fighters who control villages and traffic cocaine along Colombia's border with Ecuador. But now about 100 are disarming. It's the first and only batch of rebels to demobilize since President Gustavo Petro launched peace talks four years ago with nearly a dozen criminal groups.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Non-English language spoken).
OTIS: Workers have erected a stage in the middle of the rainforest where speakers laud the agreement. They play the Colombian national anthem. They even play the rebel hymn of the Border Commandos.
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UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL ARTIST: (Singing in Spanish).
OTIS: But this may be Colombia's last farewell-to-arms ceremony for some time to come. According to polls, Abelardo de la Espriella is favored to win today's presidential election. He's a criminal defense attorney and political newcomer who has been endorsed by President Trump. De La Espriella is promising to launch a military offensive the day after he takes office.
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ABELARDO DE LA ESPRIELLA: (Non-English language spoken).
OTIS: "I will give that order to bomb all of the camps holding narco-terrorists," he said in this interview last month on Colombian TV. His hard-line message is connecting. In the first round election last month, De La Espriella finished first, though he lacked enough votes for outright victory. That has set up today's runoff against Ivan Cepeda.
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IVAN CEPEDA: (Non-English language spoken).
OTIS: Cepeda is a left-wing senator from the ruling party who pledges to continue with peace talks. However, the rebels have used government ceasefires during the talks to recruit new fighters and expand their territorial control.
KYLE JOHNSON: It's undeniable that we have a worse security situation now than we did four years ago.
OTIS: That's Kyle Johnson of the Bogota-based Conflict Responses Foundation.
JOHNSON: There's 27,000 fighters in Colombia, and you're demobilizing a hundred. That's not a whole lot. It's better than nothing.
OTIS: The criminal nature of the Border Commandos is evident at the demobilization ceremony, which takes place near the town of La Hormiga.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Non-English language spoken).
OTIS: We're surrounded by vast fields of coca plants, which provide the raw material for cocaine that the border commandos export. Their leader is Andres Rios, who was jailed last year for drug smuggling.
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ANDRES RIOS: (Non-English language spoken).
OTIS: In a bizarre scene at the ceremony, his troops now stand at attention as Rios addresses them in a live video feed from a Bogota prison. One by one, the rebels lay down pistols, automatic rifles and bandoliers of bullets. In fact, they turn in so many weapons that one of the tables holding them collapses in the mud.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: (Non-English language spoken).
OTIS: Now these newly demobilized rebels have changed clothes. They're wearing blue jeans and T-shirts that say, I'm betting on life, and I comply with the peace process. One's carrying a monkey.
OTIS: Though their numbers are small, now ex-fighters like Carlos Andres Torres call this a big step forward.
CARLOS ANDRES TORRES: (Non-English language spoken).
OTIS: After high school, he was desperate to find work to help his family. Torres joined the Border Commandos, who pay fighters about $600 a month, but he never felt good as a gunman.
TORRES: (Non-English language spoken).
OTIS: "Now," he says, "I'm really happy to go back to normal life."
For NPR News, I'm John Otis in La Hormiga, Colombia. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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