By Luis Jaime Acosta
BOGOTA, May 16 (Reuters) – Two campaign workers for right-wing Colombian presidential candidate Abelardo De La Espriella in the country’s southeast were killed just two weeks before the presidential election, his party Defenders of the Homeland said on Saturday.
Rogers Mauricio Devia and Fabian Cardona were shot on Friday night in a rural area of Cubarral, Meta province. Four hooded men on motorcycles intercepted them and opened fire, his party said.
Devia, a former Cubarral mayor, coordinated De La Espriella’s local campaign, while Cardona assisted with logistics. They were returning by motorcycle from Villavicencio with campaign materials.
“They were cowardly murdered in cold blood,” De La Espriella said in a video statement. Authorities have not blamed an armed group, but De La Espriella blamed a dissident faction of the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels, without providing evidence.
De La Espriella polls second behind leftist Ivan Cepeda ahead of the May 31 first-round vote. He promises a hard line against guerrillas, criminal gangs and drug trafficking, including the bombing of rebel camps and the resumption of aerial fumigation of coca crops.
He recently alleged a sniper assassination plot against him involving government intelligence members.
Colombians will vote to elect President Gustavo Petro’s successor. If no candidate receives more than 50% of votes, a runoff will be held on June 21.
(Reporting by Luis Jaime Acosta in Bogota; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
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