Former mayor and Conservative Senator Menfis Palacio Pana was killed by assassins in the northern Colombian town of Riohacha, local media reported on Tuesday.
According to reports, Palacio was at a vehicle repair shop in Riohacha, capital of the La Guajira department, on Saturday when two men on a motorbike drove up, firing three shots and killing the former representative immediately.
Palacio was a lawyer who served as mayor of Manaure from 1992-1994, and was elected to Colombia’s Senate in 2000.
Palacio is the second political leader from Manaure to be assassinated in Riohacha this year. Luis Socarras Pimienta, former candidate for mayor and member of the Green Party, was assassinated on July 27 just a few blocks away from where Palacio Hoyos was killed.
Police are investigating Palacio’s murder. Meanwhile, Riohacha and other cities along the Caribbean coast are seeing a rising rate of murders carried out by assassins on motorbikes.