At least 4 dead in wave of explosions outside police stations in southwest Colombia
BOGOTA, Colombia — At least four people were killed in Colombia on Tuesday as rebel groups detonated bombs near police stations in the city of Cali and the neighboring Cauca province , according to authorities.
Military and police spokespeople blamed the attacks on the FARC-EMC , a group led by former members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia who broke away from the group after it signed a peace deal with the government in 2016.
Authorities said the rebels placed bombs in cars and motorcycles that were parked near police stations.
The attacks on the police stations come just days after Miguel Uribe , a conservative presidential candidate, was shot during a rally in Bogota. Authorities say they are investigating who was behind the attack on Uribe, who is in a critical condition in hospital in Bogota.
Colombia's government has struggled to contain violence in urban and rural areas as several rebel groups try to take over territory abandoned by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia following its peace deal with the government.
Peace talks between the FARC-EMC faction and the government broke down last year after a series of attacks on indigenous communities.
The government is currently holding talks with another faction of the group, that is led by commander Luis Alberto Alban, known also as Marcos Calarca.
____
Follow AP's coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Woman arrested over alleged links to Colombia presidential candidate shooting
A woman arrested Saturday in southern Colombia was suspected of being involved in the attempted murder of presidential candidate Miguel Uribe, police said. Uribe, a 39-year-old conservative senator, was shot twice in the head and once in the leg while giving a speech in a park on June 7 in western Bogota. The alleged shooter, a 15-year-old boy, and an accomplice who was accused of participating in the "logistics" of the attack had already been arrested. On Saturday, a police source informed AFP of a woman -- suspected of having links to the attack -- who was arrested in the Amazon region of Caqueta. "In the next few hours, they will transfer her to Bogota," the police source said, without providing further details. The other two detainees, heavily guarded in a prosecutor's bunker, are accused of homicide and carrying weapons. The minor, identified as the alleged gunman, pleaded not guilty to the charges on Tuesday. According to a report Saturday in Colombian magazine Semana, he said he was offered 20 million pesos (more than $4,800) to kill the politician. The newspaper El Tiempo also reported that one of the accused named a criminal who lives in Ecuador and controls a drug dealing area in Bogota as the alleged mastermind. Uribe remained hospitalized in intensive care, though he showed some signs of improvement this past week, doctors said Wednesday. President Gustavo Petro said the senator's improving health "cannot be explained by science." "He should be dead... and what's happening is that he's recovering," Petro said Saturday. Uribe's party, the opposition Democratic Center, temporarily suspended its campaign events for the 2026 presidential elections on Friday. Uribe has been a strong critic of Petro, Colombia's first left-wing president, who sought in vain to make peace with the country's various remaining armed groups. als/arm/dhc/mtp
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Guerrilla dissident group claims wave of Colombian attacks
A Colombian armed group comprised of ex-guerrillas who rejected a 2016 peace deal, claimed responsibility Friday for a wave of bomb and shooting attacks that killed seven people this week. Two police officers and five civilians died and 28 people were injured in the attacks on Tuesday in the country's southwest. On Friday, in a video sent to a journalists' chat, a man describing himself as commander Marlon Vasquez claimed responsibility on behalf the so-called Central General Staff (EMC). Dressed in camouflage and surrounded by guerrillas with rifles, he said the attacks came "in the midst of the commemoration of the 61 years of struggle" of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), founded in June 1964. The FARC -- the country's biggest rebel group -- signed a deal with the government in 2016 and laid down its arms. But some groups rejected the demobilization process and regrouped in two structures: Segunda Marquetalia and the EMC, the biggest of the dissident groups. Colombia is experiencing its biggest security crisis in a decade. On Tuesday, the country was rocked by a string of coordinated attacks across the southwest, where government forces are fighting FARC dissidents. Authorities reported 24 attacks, but the EMC said there were 40. The group meanwhile denied any involvement in the shooting on Saturday of presidential hopeful Miguel Uribe, who remains in a critical condition. His alleged shooter, a 15-year-old, and a man alleged to have been involved in the "logistics" of the attack, are under arrest. als/das/mlr/nl
Bloomberg
a day ago
- Bloomberg
Colombia Suspends Fiscal Rule That Curbed Government Deficits
Colombia will activate the so-called escape clause that suspends its fiscal rule, Finance Minister German Avila told reporters in Bogota. The rule was introduced by a law in 2011 and limited the government's ability to run up debt.
