A Colombian senator was rescued from kidnappers as the president reported an escape from an alleged assassination plot, heightening security fears ahead of crucial elections.
BOGOTÁ: Senator Aida Quilcue was rescued by Indigenous trackers on Tuesday after being kidnapped by armed men in the conflict-ridden department of Cauca.
The 53-year-old Indigenous activist later told AFP her captors fled upon noticing the search party, allowing her and her two bodyguards to escape.
President Gustavo Petro had earlier warned the kidnappers to release Quilcue or risk crossing “a red line”.
Petro separately claimed he escaped an assassination attempt on Monday night when his helicopter could not land due to fears it “were going to be shot”.
“We headed out to open sea for four hours and I arrived somewhere we weren’t supposed to go, escaping from being killed,” Petro reported.
The incidents occur amid warnings that Colombia’s upcoming elections could be marred by violence.
An observer group last week said over 300 municipalities are at risk of electoral violence ahead of legislative polls on March 8 and a presidential vote on May 31.
Petro, who is barred from a second term, has long claimed a drug-trafficking cabal has plotted against him since he became Colombia’s first leftist president in 2022.
The Nasa Indigenous people, to which Quilcue belongs, live under constant threat in the world’s most dangerous country for human rights defenders.
Quilcue was a member of a political grouping that backed Petro in the 2022 elections and reported an attack against her while campaigning for the Senate that same year.
Violence has surged recently with bomb attacks, drone strikes, and the assassination of a presidential hopeful.
Last week, gunmen killed two bodyguards of a senator in an attack on his convoy in the Arauca region.
Colombia remains the world’s largest producer of cocaine, with FARC dissidents and other groups fighting for control of the lucrative trade.
