A federal judge in Medellin was assassinated as she opened her garage door, and a congressman was murdered as he arrived home in a taxi, the two latest apparent victims of the drug lords' war on the government.
Elsewhere in Bogota on Wednesday, a bomb damaged the front door of a Mormon church, national police said. The church was closed and no one was injured, the police said. The bomb caused about $7,000 in damage.Mariela Espinoza was the second judge slain since the government began its crackdown on traffickers 11 weeks ago. The murdered congressman, Luis Francisco Madero, was an active opponent of the powerful drug bosses.
No one claimed responsibility for Wednesday's killings, but suspicion immediately fell on the traffickers.
Colombia's 5,000 judges and other court workers hinted at a new strike. The judicial employees, who struck for three days after another Medellin judge was slain Oct. 17, say the government has not done nearly enough to protect them.
"We are not willing to continue to be the targets in this war," said Helmut Romero, president of the court workers' union. The workers demand bodyguards and bulletproof vests and cars.
Espinoza, 43, was killed by assailants firing submachine guns as she arived home in Medellin, the heartland of Colombia's cocaine trade.
She had just arrived home in her car and was opening the garage when gunfire poured out of two cars, filled with men, that raced by, police said.
Two policemen on motorcycles who had escorted Espinoza from her office were preparing to leave when the shooting occurred, the radio network Caracol said in a report from the scene.
Espinoza, hit at least 13 times, died immediately, the police said.
One of the policemen and a bystander were wounded, Caracol said.
Espinoza, a lawyer who was apponted a judge six months ago, had been the target of two previous assassination attempts, once when dynamite was found in her car and once when her office was sprayed with submachine-gun fire.