A former mayor allied with presidential candidate Abelardo de La Espriella was shot dead in Colombia’s heartland, local authorities said Saturday. One of his aides was also killed.<\/p>\n
The killings of Rogers Devia and his staffer Eder Cardona were the latest incident of political violence in a region under dispute by two groups labeled as terrorists by the U.S. government and a third group \u2014 a splinter of the once dominant guerrilla Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.<\/p>\n
Devia died in an attack by gunmen in the rural area of Cubarral, a city he governed between 2020 and 2023, lying 105 miles south of the capital Bogota, said the Public Defender’s Office of the department of Meta in a posting on X.<\/p>\n
De La Espriella represents the National Salvation Movement.<\/p>\n
The Public Defender’s Office said the killings could hurt “the exercise of political rights and democratic participation” ahead of Colombia’s presidential elections, which take place May 31.<\/p>\n
There will be at least half a dozen candidates competing in the election, including two members of smaller left-wing parties. If none of them gets 50% of the votes a run off will take place in June between the top two contenders.<\/p>\n
Colombia’s Interior Minister Armando Benedetti said on his social media channels that investigators do not know why Devia was attacked. The minister added that police had recently stopped an attack against a staffer of another presidential candidate, Paloma Valencia, in the same city.<\/p>\n