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Two campaign staffers working for a right-leaning Colombian presidential candidate were assassinated just two weeks ahead of Colombia’s May 31 presidential election.

Some shit you should know before you dig in: If you’re unaware, Colombia is heading into a high-stakes presidential election on May 31 to replace outgoing President Gustavo Petro (the country’s first-ever leftist leader), with leftist Senator Ivan Cepeda leading the first-round race with somewhere around 40% voter support, right-wing populist Abelardo de la Espriella sitting in second with over 20%, and center-right Senator Paloma Valencia in third. If no candidate clears 50% on May 31, a runoff between the top two finishers will be held June 21. Cepeda has campaigned on continuing Petro’s policy of pursuing a negotiated solution to Colombia’s long-running armed conflict, while de la Espriella has positioned himself as Colombia’s version of populists like Nayib Bukele in El Salvador and is vowing an aggressive crackdown targeting rebel groups, organized crime, and narco-trafficking.

What’s going on now: The killings happened Friday night in a rural area of Cubarral. According to de la Espriella’s National Salvation Movement (also known as Defenders of the Homeland), the campaign workers were heading back from Villavicencio loaded with campaign supplies when four masked gunmen on motorbikes blocked their path and shot them. The victims were identified as Rogers Mauricio Devia Escobar (a former mayor of Cubarral from 2020 to 2023 who had been serving as de la Espriella’s local campaign coordinator) and Eder Fabián Cardona López (who had served as Cubarral’s Secretary of Government during Devia’s administration and was assisting the de la Espriella campaign with logistics). Cardona was found alive but badly hurt at the scene and didn’t survive his injuries.

Local Governor Rafaela Cortés confirmed the second death later Friday night and announced a reward of up to 50 million Colombian pesos for information leading to the capture of those responsible.

De la Espriella publicly blamed a dissident FARC faction for the killings without providing any evidence to back up the claim, framing the attack as a direct assault on his campaign and on Colombia itself. “They were cowardly assassinated by narco-terrorism while they were carrying the banner of the campaign and a dream of a different Colombia. They 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.”

Authorities have not officially attributed responsibility to any specific armed group, and Colombia’s Interior Minister Armando Benedetti posted to social media that investigators still don’t have a motive for the attack on Devia. Cortés also shot down online rumors claiming the Colombian Army had engaged in firefights with illegal armed groups near the attack site, saying nothing on the official record supports that claim.

This all comes as Colombia continues to grapple with the fallout from the 2016 FARC peace deal (under which the largest left-wing rebel organization in the country agreed to disarm), with multiple dissident factions that refused to sign continuing to operate as armed criminal groups across rural Colombia.