Two Colombia campaign workers killed before presidential election, party says

Gunmen shot dead two campaign workers for right-wing presidential candidate Abelardo De La Espriella in rural Cubarral, Meta, a region long marked by armed groups and weak state control. The men, Rogers Mauricio Devia and Fabian Cardona, were returning from Villavicencio with campaign materials when four hooded men on motorcycles intercepted them and opened fire, according to the party Defenders of the Homeland. Devia, a former mayor of Cubarral, coordinated the local campaign, while Cardona handled logistics.

De La Espriella said in a video statement that the pair were “cowardly murdered in cold blood.” He blamed a dissident faction of former FARC rebels, but he offered no evidence, and authorities had not blamed any armed group at the time. The killings landed in the middle of a campaign in which De La Espriella has built his message around a hard line against guerrillas, criminal gangs and drug trafficking, including bombing rebel camps and resuming aerial fumigation of coca crops.

The attack also sharpened the security stakes in a race already shaped by polling and political uncertainty. Colombia votes on May 31, with a runoff set for June 21 if no candidate wins outright, and the next president is due to take office on August 7. President Gustavo Petro is constitutionally barred from seeking immediate reelection, turning the contest into an open succession battle. A recent Invamer poll put leftist Iván Cepeda of the Historic Pact at 44.3%, De La Espriella at 21.5% and center-right Paloma Valencia at 19.8%, based on 3,800 personal interviews with a margin of error of plus or minus 2%.

The killing fits a broader pattern of political intimidation that has already forced candidates to scale back campaigning after a wave of attacks. That includes the kidnapping of a senator and the assassination last year of Miguel Uribe Turbay, the first killing of a Colombian presidential candidate in more than 30 years. In Meta, where FARC dissidents, the National Liberation Army and the Clan del Golfo have all competed for territory and influence, violence against local political figures carries a meaning that goes beyond one campaign: it is a warning that the election is being fought not only over ideology, but over who can safely control the ground before voters reach the ballot box.