BOGOTA (Reuters) – Gustavo Petro, a left-wing candidate in the Colombian presidential election, canceled events in the country’s coffee-growing region on Monday after his aide said there was a plot by a criminal gang to attack him.
Petro, a former M-19 guerrilla and former mayor of Bogota, would travel to the region, including the city of Manizales, on Tuesday and Wednesday ahead of the vote, scheduled for May 29.
However, his office said in a statement that the visit was canceled after Petro’s security team received information that the La Cordillera criminal gang was planning an attack.
“According to the work carried out by the security team, which received first-hand information from sources in the region, the criminal organization La Cordillera planned to attempt to assassinate presidential candidate Gustavo Petro,” the statement said. assistants. campaign press.
National police said they will issue a statement on the case later this Monday.
The organization La Cordillera, which operates predominantly in the coffee region, has been accused by police of the death of a local organizer of the anti-government protests that swept the country a year ago.
Petro got 43.6% of the first-round vote in an opinion poll last week, while his closest rival, centre-right candidate Federico Gutiérrez, got 26.7%.
(Communication by Julia Symmes Cobb and Luis Jaime Acosta)
source: Noticias
