With a third presidential candidate assassinated, Columbia's government refused to put off the 1990 election and vowed to keep up the fight against drug traffickers. The Medellin drug cartel denied responsibility for the assassination of presidential candidate Carlos Pizarro, who died in a hail of bullets Thursday aboard a Colombian jetliner. On the same day, a man called the national radio network station and detailed how the cartel allegedly ordered the killing. When a candidate was killed in August, the government launched a US-backed crackdown on Colombia's cocaine cartels. Since then, drug traffickers have killed 13 people.
With a third presidential candidate assassinated, Columbia's government refused to put off the 1990 election and vowed to keep up the fight against drug traffickers. The Medellin drug cartel denied responsibility for the assassination of presidential candidate Carlos Pizarro, who died in a hail of bullets Thursday aboard a Colombian jetliner. On the same day, a man called the national radio network station and detailed how the cartel allegedly ordered the killing. When a candidate was killed in August, the government launched a US-backed crackdown on Colombia's cocaine cartels. Since then, drug traffickers have killed more than 230 people.