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Hello and welcome to Newsout from the BBC World Service.

We're coming to you live from London.

I'm James Menendez.

And we're going to begin in Colombia,

where about a quarter of a million soldiers and police have been deployed

to protect

polling stations during today's presidential election. There's been an upsurge in violence in the

South American country recently as armed groups battle for control of the cocaine trade, among other

things. And that'll be one of the issues on voters' minds as they cast their ballots. The current left-wing

president, Gustavo Petro, who cannot serve another term, said Colombians mustn't be intimidated into

voting for a particular candidate. The right to vote, and we must be clear about it, must be free

and transparent.

Freedom is the basis of democracy, and if that freedom doesn't exist, it's nothing more than a word, democracy.

Every citizen should understand this.

Freedom means that their vote is in accordance with their convictions, their analysis, and whatever they want.

And it cannot be interfered with by pressures from outside that individual.

So that means that those who offer you money for a vote, or who pressure you to vote for one or another candidate,

or an employer who says that they will fire their employees if they don't vote for their candidate, be treated as criminals. The elections have been seen as something of a referendum on President

Petro's time in office. One of the frontrunners, Ivan Cepeda, is an ally of his and has pledged

to continue his policies. But he faces stiff opposition from the right, from a traditional

conservative and from a flamboyant far-right populist who's an admirer of Donald Trump.

...