Senator Who Eased Drug Penalties Shot in Colombia

BOGOTA, Colombia — A senator who helped to ease penalties for drug traffickers was shot and critically wounded in Medellin on Friday.

Senate Vice President Dario Londono Cardona and his driver were shot while walking to his car at the University of Medellin, 165 miles northwest of Bogota, where he teaches. The hit team included three men and a woman.

Londono, 45, helped to write a law passed Tuesday that offers leniency to drug traffickers and other criminals who surrender and tell authorities about their operations.

A man who said he represented a group calling itself “Death to Protectors of the Cali Cartel” claimed responsibility for the attack and threatened “more terrorist actions” in a phone call to Caracol radio.