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Cesar Gaviria was thrust into the national spotlight during Galan’s nationally televised funeral when one of the murdered candidate’s teenage sons tapped him as his father’s successor during an emotional eulogy. Gaviria was elected president nine months later, at age 42. During his four years in office he stepped up anti-narcotics co-operation with the United States and brought down infamous drug lord Pablo Escobar, who likely ordered Galan’s murder.

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MEXICO

In the spring of 1994 Mexicans watched in shock as presidential candidate Luis Colosio was shot at point blank range at a campaign rally in Tijuana. Colosio was a shoo-in for the presidency but in some ways his brutal slaying paved the way for a more democratic era in Mexico.

After Colosio’s death, his Institutional Revolutionary Party, which held a tight monopoly on power for seven decades, struggled to find a popular replacement amid internal frictions and ban on anyone who had held public office in the previous six months from running for the presidency. They eventually settled on Ernesto Zedillo, a U.S. educated technocrat who had served on Colosio’s campaign. Zedillo oversaw electoral reforms that made Mexico’s democracy more competitive, and eventually gave opposition parties the chance to win governorships as well as the country’s presidency.

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PAKISTAN

The 2007 slaying of Benazir Bhutto at a campaign rally as she was seeking to become Pakistan’s prime minister for the third time touched off weeks of deadly rioting in the Muslim nation. Bhutto was killed in a combination shooting and suicide bombing just weeks after returning to Pakistan from exile. Her death made the self-styled “daughter of Pakistan” a martyr. Her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, was elected in her place and went about forcing the resignation of military ruler Pervez Musharraf.