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COLOMBIA-ATTACK-POLICE
Eleven killed in car bomb attack on Colombian police academy
BOGOTA, Jan 18, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Colombia’s government declared three days
of mourning Thursday after a car bomb at a Bogota police cadet training
academy killed at least 11 people and wounded 65 — the worst such incident
in the city in 16 years.
The defense ministry said the “terrorist act” was carried out using a
vehicle packed with 80 kilograms (around 175 pounds) of explosives.
“All Colombians reject terrorism and we’re united in fighting it,”
President Ivan Duque tweeted in the aftermath.
Later in a statement to the nation, he said he had ordered reinforcements
to Colombia’s borders and routes in and out of cities.
“I have also requested that priority be given to all the investigations …
to identify the masterminds of this terrorist attack and their accomplices,”
he said.
The bomber — who authorities confirmed was killed in the attack — struck
at the General Francisco de Paula Santander Officer’s School in the south of
Bogota during a promotion ceremony for cadets.
No group has claimed responsibility, but public prosecutor Nestor Humberto
Martinez named suspect Jose Aldemar Rojas Rodriguez as the “material author
of this abominable crime.”
Martinez said Rojas Rodriguez entered the school compound at 9:30 am (1430
GMT) driving a grey 1993 Nissan Patrol truck, but gave no details about the
explosion.
He said the truck underwent an inspection in July in the Arauco department
on the border with Venezuela — a traditional stronghold of ELN Marxist
guerrillas.
– ‘Brutal act of terrorism’ –
Ecuador’s President Lenin Moreno said one of the dead was an Ecuadoran
cadet, while a second suffered light injuries.
“The brutal act of terrorism in Bogota took the life of a compatriot,”
Moreno said on Twitter.
“My sincerest thoughts go to the family, friends and companions of Erika
Chico.”
Meanwhile, Panama’s President Juan Carlos Varela said that 45 Panamanian
cadets were present during the attack, with two injured.
Fanny Contreras, the Colombian armed forces’ health inspector, told local
radio that the truck “entered (the school compound) suddenly, almost hitting
the police, and then there was the explosion.”
Carol Oviedo said her brother Jonathan, a cadet, told her on the phone he
had been injured, before the connection was cut.
“In two years since he joined the police, he’s never had to face a
situation like this,” she said.
Like other families, she was lingering in the vicinity of the academy
hoping to hear some news.
United States assistant secretary of state in charge of Latin America,
Kimberly Breier condemned the attack and said: “Our condolences and
sympathies go to the victims and family members of those killed.”
The US embassy in Bogota offered its “help in investigating this
reprehensible attack.”
– ‘Horrible, horrible’ –
Rosalba Jimenez, 62, was opening her confectionary store near the school
when the bomb went off.
“When we turned to look at the school the sky was grey with smoke. People
were running, sirens… horrible, horrible, it seemed like the end of the
world,” Jimenez told AFP.
Authorities sealed off the area to the press and increased security service
patrols in the south of the city, AFP reporters said.
Right-wing Duque, who assumed power in August, has peddled a tough line
against Marxist rebels and drug traffickers in the largest cocaine producer
in the world.
Peace talks with ELN guerrillas — who in the past have claimed
responsibility for bomb attacks on police — stalled before Duque replaced
Juan Manuel Santos as president, and have not been restarted.
Duque has made several demands, including the release of all hostages, as
prerequisites to kick-starting the peace process, but the ELN has dismissed
those as unacceptable.
After the 2016 peace accord signed by Santos and FARC guerrillas, turning
the former rebels into a political party, the ELN is considered the last
active rebel group in a country that has suffered more than half a century of
conflict.
That cycle of violence has also involved paramilitaries, drug traffickers
and other Marxist rebels, including FARC dissidents.
A year ago, six police died and 40 were injured in an attack on a police
station in the Caribbean city of Barranquilla that was claimed by the ELN.
In February 2017, the ELN claimed responsibility for an attack on a police
patrol in the Macarena neighborhood of Bogota that left one officer dead and
several seriously wounded.
In June, three people — including a Frenchwoman — were killed and nine
others wounded in an attack on a Bogota shopping mall that authorities blamed
on a fringe left-wing group called the Revolutionary People’s Movement (MRP).
BSS/AFP/GMR/1030 hrs