A mayoral candidate from the southwest of Colombia has been assassinated, local media reported Sunday. The victim is the second candidate for the October elections to lose his life over his political aspirations.
The victim, Conservative Party member Giraldo Ojeda, was shot dead by an assassin inside his campaign office in Alban, Nariño.
According to local media, the assassin entered Ojeda’s campaign office on Saturday evening while the candidate was meeting with campaign workers.
After shooting the candidate in the head, the killer shot a number of times in the air to make sure the shocked assistants fled the scene of the crime.
According to W Radio, Ojeda had reported before his death that has was being threatened.
The Conservative Party leadership in the capital Bogota rejected the assassination and expressed its condolences to Ojeda’s family and party members in Nariño.
Ojeda is the second mayoral candidate to be killed ahead of October’s elections after Jose Ignacio Londoño, a Liberal Party candidate who was running for mayor in Cartago, a town in the western Valle del Cauca province.
Colombia will take to the polls on October 25 for local elections in which the South American country elect new governors, mayors, and deputy and city council members.