The attack underscored the vulnerability of politicians in rural Colombia despite the progress made by President Alvaro Uribe’s U.S.-backed security drive to defeat Latin America’s oldest-surviving leftist insurgency. Police said rebels attacked a convoy transporting Jose Alberto Perez, a Conservative Party candidate for the Guaviare province governorship in a special February 28 election organized after the previous governor was forced to step down. Perez was wounded when rebels opened fire in a roadside ambush that killed four police bodyguards and another person, police said. Read more here. Semana International delivers news about Colombia in English. Find more in our home.