A Conservative Party candidate for city council in Florencia, in the southwestern Colombian department of Caqueta, has been assassinated, Spanish news agency EFE reported Sunday.
Jazmin Ortiz Rodriguez, 36, was shot three times as she arrived at her home in the town of Florencia Saturday, and died in the hospital the next morning.
Ortiz is the 37th candidate in the upcoming elections to be assassinated. However, police insisted that the aspiring politician’s murder was not motivated by the elections, but by her criminal activity.
“Jasmine Ortiz Rodriguez worked as a motorcycle driver and had a history of drug dealing and drug trafficking,” said Caqueta’s Police Commander Carlos Vargas.
According to Vargas, police suspect that Ortiz was killed for revenge in connection with an ongoing murder investigation against her husband, Emiro Francisco Escobar Ramos.