Caracas, Nov 26 (EFE).- An opposition leader was shot dead at a campaign event in central Venezuela attended by the wife of Leopoldo Lopez, a high-profile government opponent who is serving a lengthy prison sentence, heightening tensions heading into next month’s legislative elections.

Luis Manuel Diaz, secretary of the opposition Democratic Action party in the town of Altagracia de Orituco, was gunned down at around 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in that same locality in Guarico state, the party’s general secretary, Henry Ramos Allup, wrote on Twitter.

Ramos, whose party is part of the conservative opposition MUD coalition, said the shots were fired by members of an armed gang that is part of the governing leftist PSUV party, adding that violence by those groups is “on the rise.”

Lilian Tintori – whose husband was sentenced in September to nearly 14 years in prison for inciting violence during mass anti-government protests last year in which dozens were killed – said Thursday that she was near Diaz when the shooting occurred and may have been the target of the attack.

“They want to kill me,” Tintori said at a press conference in which she said she heard at least 10 gunshots and blamed Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro for the murder.

Maduro, meanwhile, lamented the killing but slammed Ramos’ remarks, saying the opposition party chief needed to back up his accusations with evidence.

“Enough with the right trying to sully Chavistas (the ruling party and its supporters),” he said, adding that the investigation and eye-witness testimony were showing that Ramos’ allegations were “totally false.”

Separately, the head of the government’s legislative election campaign, Jorge Rodriguez, said Thursday that the slain local opposition leader was a member of a criminal gang and under investigation for homicide and that authorities were searching for members of a rival group as the primary suspects in the killing.

Rodriguez also said that a complaint would be filed with the Attorney General’s Office against Ramos for slander.

The AG’s office, meanwhile, said it had launched an investigation into the killing and had assigned two prosecutors to lead the probe.

The murder occurred just days before Dec. 6 legislative elections in which some polls show the ruling party – which is battling an economic crisis triggered in part by low oil prices – could lose control of the unicameral National Assembly for the first time in 16 years. EFE