BOGOTÁ (Reuters) – Gustavo Petro, the favorite leftist candidate in Colombia’s presidential elections, on Monday canceled events in the country’s coffee-growing region over what his aide said was a plot by a criminal gang to attack him.
Petro, a former M-19 guerrilla and former mayor of Bogotá, was due to travel to the region, including the city of Manizales, on Tuesday and Wednesday ahead of the vote scheduled for May 29.
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But the visit was called off after Petro’s security team received information that the La Cordillera criminal gang was planning an attack, his office said in a statement.
“According to the work carried out by the security team, which received first-hand information from sources in the region, the criminal group La Cordillera planned to attempt the life of presidential candidate Gustavo Petro,” said the statement, whose authenticity was confirmed by aides. campaign press.
The national police said they would make a statement on the case later this Monday.
The organization La Cordillera, which operates mainly in the coffee region, has been blamed by police for the death of a local organizer of anti-government acts that swept the country a year ago.
Petro topped an opinion poll last week with 43.6% of voting intentions in the first round, while his closest rival, center-right candidate Federico Gutiérrez, recorded 26.7%.
(Reporting by Julia Symmes Cobb and Luis Jaime Acosta)
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