A Colombian soldier continues to be treated in an intensive care unit (ICU), while two men in the U.S. military as advisers were slightly injured in a bomb attack in the city of Cucuta on Tuesday, which authorities believe was carried out by left-wing guerrillas, he said. Colombian Minister of Defense Diego Molano.
The bomber struck shortly after noon in front of a police recruiting center at Kisak, close to the Venezuelan border.
“None of the American advisers helping in the fight against drug trafficking were seriously injured,” Mr Molano told reporters at the camp.
Of the 36 wounded, in addition to the soldier who remains in the ICU, two have undergone surgery and are recovering, the Colombian defense minister added.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff for Latin America (USSOUTHCOM) confirmed in a press release that no member of the group based in Cucuta had been seriously injured.
A reward of 500 million pesos (almost 113,000 euros) is being offered for information leading to the arrest of those behind the attack, Molano said.
According to a press release of the Ministry of Defense, the day before yesterday, Tuesday around 15:00 (local time), two persons riding in a white Toyota truck entered the camp pretending to be public officials. Then there were two explosions in the vehicle that injured dozens of people in the military unit.
Attorney General Francisco Barbosa said the car bomb had entered the camp through the main gate.
According to General Luis Fernando Navarro, Chief of General Staff, so far the main hypothesis in the investigation is that the National Liberation Army (ELN) is responsible for the attack.
However, Mr Barbosa said the scenario was also being blamed on dissidents of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People’s Army (FARC-EP), who reject the 2016 peace deal and have taken up arms again.
The ELN is officially considered the last guerrilla organization to continue its armed struggle in Colombia, following the 2016 peace agreement signed by then-President Juan Manuel Santos with the FARC, which disarmed, disbanded and transformed into a political party.
Cucuta is the capital of the Norde de Santander region, where the ELN, the Pelusos – a remnant of a Maoist guerrilla group that has officially disbanded and abandoned the armed struggle -, FARC insurgents and various drug-trafficking gangs clash.
Armed groups are fighting for control of an area of about 410,000 acres where coca is grown in the area, which is part of a major smuggling route to Venezuela and the Caribbean.
Incumbent President Ivan Duke buried the talks that began with the ELN during the days of Mr. Santos’s predecessor, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, following the January 2019 attack on the Bogota police academy, which killed 22 probationers, in addition to perpetrator.
The National Liberation Army, an organization founded by radicalized Catholic priests in 1964, is estimated by Colombia’s military intelligence service to have between 2,300 and 2,600 fighters and an extensive support network in the province and urban centers.
The organization’s leadership assures that it is not involved in drug trafficking.
Colombia is the country with the highest cocaine production in the world. The country where most of it is consumed is the USA.
