2 priests slain in Colombian capital

Bogota, Jan 28 (IANS/EFE) Two Catholic priests were fatally shot Thursday inside a car in a suburb of the Colombian capital, police said.

Officers went to the scene after residents of the Dindalito neighbourhood of Ciudad Kennedy reported hearing gunshots, police Col. Jose Baquero said.

Witnesses told cops they saw a man exit the car after the shooting and hop on a waiting motorcycle, Baquero said.

The Colombian bishops conference identified the victims as the Revs. Rafael Reatiga Rojas, 35, and Richard Armando Piffano Laguado, 37.

Both men were parish priests: Piffano in Ciudad Kennedy and Reatiga in the Bogota suburb of Soacha.

Initial accounts indicated “the priest’s killer traveled with them in the car and fled after shooting them”, the bishops conference said, noting that 74 priests, eight monks and nuns and three seminarians have been murdered in Colombia since 1984.

–IANS/EFE