Fear is a way of life for Colombian mayor

NEIVA, COLOMBIA — Mayor Cielo Gonzalez's house looks like a Marine outpost in Fallouja, buttressed by stacks of sandbags to absorb any blasts. She travels with 10 gun-toting guards, and recently received a gift from President Alvaro Uribe: the most heavily armored SUV in Colombia.

"I am often very afraid or very bored," said Gonzalez, a tall, athletic 38-year-old. "The guerrillas have made me a prisoner."

Early this month, Gonzalez emerged unscathed from the second attempt on her life by leftist guerrillas in the 3 1/2 years since she was elected mayor of this rice-farming and cattle city in southern Colombia. Would-be assassins planted two bombs outside the radio station where she took citizen calls every Thursday morning. One bomb was in a parked sedan that drew authorities' attention: It exploded as it was being towed away, injuring five people.

The second bomb, taped to the station's water meter, was discovered the following night. It blew up as it was being transported in a police vehicle, killing four police officers who thought the device had been disarmed. One of the mayor's bodyguards was among the victims.

Gonzalez, whose designer shoes and chic attire seem out of place in this agricultural hub of 350,000 people, says she is a target because she supports the tough anti-guerrilla policies of Uribe. She refuses to quit her job, though her life has been drastically changed.

"I can't do any of the simple things I used to do, like jog in the mornings, go to the hairdresser, parties or the movies. Now I only rent them," said Gonzalez, a lawyer who comes from a political family. "I already had stopped doing everything in my old routine, except the Thursday morning radio shows. And look what happened."

Gonzalez is hardly alone among Colombia's locally elected officials. According to a mayors association, 159 of the country's 1,099 mayors live under the shadow of a death threat from the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as the FARC, or from right-wing paramilitaries.

Nor is Gonzalez the only member of her well-connected family to come under threat. Her father, a former Bogota City Council member, and brother, a Colombian senator, also have been targeted.

Politics is Gonzalez's calling, she says, and not something she is willing to give up. To do so would be "making way for killers," she adds. "Someone has to confront the dangers, and Colombia deserves it. It's the only way to build a democracy."