Two members of the campaign team for right-wing presidential contender Abelardo De La Espriella were fatally shot on Friday night in Cubarral, a rural municipality in the Meta province in southeastern Colombia, his party Defenders of the Homeland said on Saturday.
Party officials identified the victims as Rogers Mauricio Devia and Fabian Cardona. Devia, a former mayor of Cubarral, was serving as the candidate’s local campaign coordinator, while Cardona worked on logistics. The pair were returning by motorcycle from Villavicencio carrying campaign materials when they were intercepted, the party said.
According to the party’s account, four hooded men on motorcycles stopped the two campaign workers and opened fire. The killings took place in a rural stretch of Cubarral; no armed group has been formally blamed by authorities for the attack.
"They were cowardly murdered in cold blood," De La Espriella said in a video statement.
In his public remarks, De La Espriella accused a dissident faction of the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) of responsibility for the killings, but the campaign did not provide evidence to substantiate that claim.
The incident comes just two weeks before Colombians go to the polls on May 31 to choose a successor to President Gustavo Petro. If no candidate secures an outright majority, a runoff is scheduled for June 21.
De La Espriella is polling in second place behind leftist Ivan Cepeda ahead of the first-round vote. He has campaigned on a platform that promises a hard line against guerrillas, criminal gangs and drug trafficking. Specific measures he advocates include the bombing of rebel camps and the resumption of aerial fumigation of coca crops.
Separately, De La Espriella recently alleged the existence of a sniper assassination plot targeting him that involved members of government intelligence, a claim that has been publicly reported by the candidate but not substantiated in the party’s statement about the recent killings.
The killings of two campaign staff close to election day heighten security concerns around the vote and underscore the volatile conditions in parts of the country where armed actors remain active. Authorities have not released further details about an ongoing investigation into the incident.
Context note: The account above reflects the information released by the candidate’s party and De La Espriella's public statements; formal attribution of responsibility has not been established by authorities.