Colombian Archbishop Is Shot Dead

Unidentified gunmen shot Cali’s Roman Catholic archbishop in the head and chest Saturday, killing the critic of drug-money corruption as he left a church where he had presided over a wedding, police said.

Colombian authorities said they suspected Marxist guerrillas, but no group immediately claimed responsibility.

The men shot Isaias Duarte Cancino at point-blank range and escaped on a motorbike.

Edilberto Ceballos, Duarte Cancino’s driver, told Caracol radio: “Two guys came and opened fire and hit him three or four times, maybe even six times. I saw him dead.”

Duarte Cancino, who just weeks ago said that drug money was funding congressional campaigns, was dead on arrival at a nearby hospital, Dr. Ricardo Vanegas said.

Duarte Cancino had also publicly criticized leftist guerrillas and far-right paramilitary outlaws.

Authorities accuse both the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia and paramilitary groups of deep involvement in drug smuggling.

“We believe this was the work of the subversives,” said police Gen. Heliodoro Alfonso Roa.

The head of Colombia’s Roman Catholic Church, Msgr. Alberto Giraldo, was not so sure. “The question is: What’s going on? Who are the dark forces which are trying to destabilize this poor country?”