India, May 18 -- A former mayor allied with presidential candidate Abelardo de La Espriella was shot dead in Colombia's heartland, local authorities said Saturday. One of his aides was also killed.

The killings of Rogers Devia and his staffer Eder Cardona were the latest incident of political violence in a region under dispute by two groups labelled as terrorists by the US government and a third group - a splinter of the once dominant guerrilla Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

Devia died in an attack by gunmen in the rural area of Cubarral, a city he governed between 2020-2023, lying 170 kilometres (105 miles) south of the capital Bogota, said the Public Defender's Office of the department of Meta in a posting on X. De L...