Two members of a Colombian presidential campaign were shot dead by motorbike gunmen in the central department of Meta on Friday night, just two weeks before the country heads to the polls on May 31. The victims were identified as Rogers Mauricio Devia Escoba, a former mayor of Cubarral — a rural town roughly 170 kilometres south of the capital Bogotá — and his adviser Eder Fabián Cardona López. Both men were affiliated with right-wing presidential candidate Abelardo de la Espriella of the National Salvation Movement.
De la Espriella announced the killings on social media platform X, writing that the two staffers "walked the streets defending democracy, freedom, and the hope of millions of Colombians" and that "their only crime was believing in the Fatherland and not kneeling before the violent." Colombia's Interior Minister Armando Benedetti said investigators do not yet have a clear motive for the attack, though he noted that police had recently foiled a separate attack against a staffer of another candidate, centre-right Senator Paloma Valencia, in the same area.
Meta has long been contested territory for armed groups, including dissident factions of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) — the once-dominant left-wing guerrilla organisation that signed a 2016 peace deal with the government, though several splinter groups refused to disarm and continue to operate. Two of these factions have been designated as terrorist organisations by the United States government. Colombia's citizens' rights ombudsman warned that the killings, together with ongoing threats and intimidation, risk undermining "the exercise of political rights and democratic participation" ahead of the vote.
The killings are the latest in a pattern of political violence that has shadowed the campaign season. At least three presidential candidates have reported receiving death threats and travel with heavy security details. Senator Iván Cepeda, the left-wing frontrunner with between 37 and 40 percent support in polls, saw his vice presidential running mate, Indigenous senator Aida Quilcue, briefly kidnapped by a rebel group last year. Senator Miguel Uribe, another presidential hopeful, was shot at a campaign rally in Bogotá in June 2025 and died from his wounds two months later.
The May 31 election will decide who succeeds Gustavo Petro, Colombia's first left-wing president. If no candidate secures more than 50 percent of the vote, a run-off between the top two contenders will follow in June. The ombudsman's warning underscores how deeply entangled security and democratic participation have become in a country where armed groups retain a powerful grip on large swathes of territory.