Parties Trade Blame in Shooting Deaths

Bodyguards for the leading presidential candidate shot and killed a governing party official and another man in what the opposition said was self-defense during an assassination attempt. The Dominican Revolutionary Party said someone shot at the car of its presidential candidate, Hipolito Mejia, on Saturday night in Moca and that his security guards returned fire. But President Leonel Fernandez’s Dominican Liberation Party said the security guards shot first. The most violent confrontation yet in the campaign was an indication of the rising tensions and high stakes surrounding elections set for May 16 in this Caribbean nation of 8 million people. Luis Terrero Gil, 41, a local official of the Liberation Party and director of the National Center for Science and Art, was killed, as was Rafael Penalo, 29, who was on the street in front of Terrero’s house. Police were investigating and declined to comment.