A FORMER mayor allied with Colombian presidential candidate Abelardo de La Espriella has been shot dead, local authorities said Saturday. One of his aides was also killed.

The killings of Rogers Devia and his staffer Eder Cardona are the latest incidents of political violence in a region under dispute by a number of armed groups.

Mr Devia died in the attack by gunmen in the rural area of Cubarral, a city he governed between 2020-2023, 105 miles south of the capital Bogota, said the Public Defender’s Office (PDO) at the Department of Meta in a social media post.

Mr Espriella represents the National Salvation Movement.

The PDO said the killings could hurt “the exercise of political rights and democratic participation” ahead of Colombia’s presidential elections on May 31.

There will be at least half a dozen candidates competing in the election, including two members of smaller left-wing parties.

Colombia’s Interior Minister Armando Benedetti said investigators do not know why Mr Devia was attacked. 

The minister added that police had recently thwarted an attack against a staffer of another presidential candidate, Paloma Valencia, in the same city.