Colombia’s citizens’ rights office says the violence could hinder the ‘exercise of political rights’ ahead of the May vote to replace Gustavo Petro.

Two presidential campaign staffers have been killed in Colombia just two weeks before the South American country heads to the polls.

The killings were announced by right-wing presidential candidate Abelardo de la Espriella, who said gunmen on motorbikes shot the victims in the central department of Meta on Friday night.

In a post on the social media platform X, de la Esperiella said the two staffers “walked the streets defending democracy, freedom, and the hope of millions of Colombians”.

“Their only crime was believing in the Fatherland and not kneeling before the violent,” the candidate added.

The citizens’ rights ombudsman for Colombia identified the slain men as Rogers Mauricio Devia Escoba, a former mayor for the city of Cubarral, and his adviser Eder Fabian Cardona Lopez.

The office said another attack took place against a former mayoral candidate in the area, without providing further details.

While the attacks remain under investigation, the ombudsman warned that they could affect the “exercise of political rights and democratic participation” in the upcoming election on May 31.

“Violence, threats, and any form of intimidation undermine public debate, deepen risks for political and social leaderships, and weaken democratic coexistence,” the office said in a statement.

Meta has long been a stronghold for both rebel fighters and cocaine trafficking in the country. Violence and surging crime have featured prominently in the presidential race to replace the country’s first leftist leader, Gustavo Petro.

The frontrunner in the presidential race, left-wing Senator Ivan Cepeda, has promised to continue the course charted by Petro, who has championed a negotiated solution to Colombia’s armed conflict.

De la Espriella, by contrast, has moulded himself in the likeness of populist right-wing leaders like El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele and Argentina’s Javier Milei.

Polls show him polling in second with more than 20 percent of voter support, followed by centre-right Senator Paloma Valencia.

Cepeda, meanwhile, is going into the first round of voting with between 37 and 40 percent support. A total of 14 candidates were registered for the presidential race as of March.

At least three candidates have reported receiving death threats. The frontrunners all travel with heavy security.

Last year, Cepeda’s vice presidential running mate, Indigenous activist and state senator Aida Quilcue, was briefly kidnapped by a rebel group that broke away from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

It was among the dissident factions that refused to sign a 2016 deal with the government, under which the FARC — the largest left-wing rebel organisation at the time — agreed to disarm.

Miguel Uribe, a senator and presidential hopeful, was also shot during a June 2025 rally in Bogota. He died from his wound two months later, in August.