Coordinated flurry of bombings and gun attacks rock Colombia
Colombia was rocked by a string of 24 coordinated bomb and gun attacks that killed at least seven people across the country's southwest Tuesday, deepening a security crisis roiling the Andean nation.
Attackers struck targets in Cali -- the country's third-largest city -- and several nearby towns, hitting police posts, municipal buildings and civilian targets.
National Police chief Carlos Fernando Triana said assailants -- suspected to be a local guerrilla group -- had attacked using car bombs, motorcycle bombs, rifle fire and a suspected drone.
"There are two police officers dead, and a number of members of the public are also dead," he said. Police later put the toll at seven dead and 28 more injured.
In Cali and the towns of Villa Rica, Guachinte and Corinto, AFP journalists witnessed the tangled wreckage of vehicle bombs surrounded by scorched debris and damaged buildings.
The attacks came days after a brazen attempted assassination of a presidential candidate in Bogota that has put the country on edge.
Many Colombians are now fearful of a return to the violence of the 1980s and 1990s, when cartel attacks, guerrilla violence and political assassinations were commonplace.
In the town of Corinto, resident Luz Amparo was at home when the blast gutted her bakery Tuesday.
Read more on FRANCE 24 EnglishRead also:Colombian presidential hopeful Miguel Uribe shot in head at Bogota rallyColombia reinstates arrest warrants for guerrilla leaders behind deadly violence
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Miami Herald
an hour ago
- Miami Herald
‘Psychological warfare': Internal data shows true nature of Alligator Alcatraz
A month into his detention at Alligator Alcatraz, Daniel Ortiz Piñeda faced a stark choice: continue his legal fight for asylum or give it up to hopefully put an end to his extended stay at the makeshift immigration detention camp in the Everglades. The Colombian national, with no criminal record, had the right to remain in the country while appealing the 2023 denial of his asylum request. But last week, the 33-year-old asked his attorney to drop his appeal, preferring repatriation to the possibility of indefinite detention. 'He feels like there's nothing here for him now,' Piñeda's mother said in an interview. Stories like Piñeda's have played out repeatedly at the Everglades detention camp. While it was promoted as a place where migrants with heinous criminal histories would be detained and quickly deported, records exclusively obtained by the Miami Herald and Tampa Bay Times show it was largely used during its first month in operation as a holding pen and transfer hub for immigrants who were still fighting their cases in immigration courts. Hundreds, the records note, did not have criminal convictions or pending charges. At the end of July, when the number of detainees at the site was around its peak, only one in five of the roughly 1,400 detainees at the site had been ordered removed from the country by a judge, a Herald/Times review of the records found. That means hundreds of men were being detained there without final adjudication orders, despite Gov. Ron DeSantis' claims to the contrary. The records also show that nearly two out of every five immigrants listed in early July as being detained at the South Florida facility or headed there were still recorded as detainees at the facility at the end of the month. During that stretch, immigration attorneys claimed their clients had little to no access to the courts and were largely forced to communicate about cases over recorded lines. Lawyers also alleged their clients were pressured to abandon their immigration cases — without legal consultation — and agree to be deported. It wasn't until Saturday that lawyers for the federal government said a Miami immigration court had been designated as the responsible venue for handling Alligator Alcatraz cases. The number of people at Alligator Alcatraz fluctuates daily and has dropped drastically since the beginning of the month, as a federal judge weighs whether to shut down the site. But for detainees held throughout July in chain-link cages and tents the uncertainty created mental pressure that their attorneys and families say was worse than the prospect of being deported, even to a country where they fear persecution. 'Putting people in tents in the middle of the Everglades is a great tool to make them give up their cases,' said Mark Prada, an immigration attorney. The Department of Homeland Security, which is in charge of immigrant detainees, and the Florida Division of Emergency Management, which oversees Alligator Alcatraz operations, did not respond to requests for comment. When the state seized an airstrip in the Big Cypress National Preserve and began constructing a camp to hold thousands of migrants, DeSantis said the site would serve as a 'one-stop' shop for the Trump administration's needs for detention and deportation. Detainees with final orders of removal would be held in tents and quickly deported from an on-site runway, he said. To expedite deportations, DeSantis said qualified National Guard members would work as immigration judges on the site — an idea that President Donald Trump gave a thumbs up to during a July 1 visit. But the plans have yet to be implemented and immigration attorneys have complained for weeks that their Alligator Alcatraz clients have had hearings for their cases routinely canceled in federal Florida immigration courts by judges who said they did not have jurisdiction over the detainees in the Everglades. For hundreds of detainees, that meant weeks of uncertainty living inside tents, where the lights were turned on throughout the day and the only connection to the outside world was often a recorded landline. Attorneys have complained about staff at the facility pressuring their clients to sign voluntary removal orders without consulting an attorney and, in one case, deceiving a detainee with an intellectual disability by telling him he would need to 'sign some paper in exchange for a blanket' — and then deporting him after he had signed it, court filings show. Mark Hamburger, an attorney who has had several clients at the detention camp, said the conditions created a kind of 'psychological warfare' for detainees. 'They're being put to the test,' he said. 'How long can you stand this? A lot of people are folding.' That group of original detainees included Piñeda, who was taken into custody after showing up for a scheduled immigration meeting in Miami Lakes on July 7, according to his family members. 'To have somebody detained like this, pending an appeal, when they have not committed any crimes is unheard of,' said his attorney, Osley Sallent. Piñeda told his family members that when he entered Alligator Alcatraz, the guards told him and other new arrivals, 'As soon as you come in here, you don't have any rights.' It would be days before he could shower, and he said that he hadn't received adequate medical care for an ongoing ear infection and stomach ailment. He was moved to the Glades County Detention Center west of Lake Okeechobee in early August shortly after dropping his asylum appeal. Like Piñeda, the vast majority of detainees in the facility at the end of July had no final order of removal from a judge, according to the new data. That means that the immigration cases for most men at the facility were still ongoing. While the data shows that more than 100 of those detainees had been issued expedited orders of removal – which allows the government to deport them without going through the immigration courts – immigration lawyers said that these can still be appealed in some circumstances, such as when an immigrant is seeking asylum. 'Finality is a big deal,' Prada said. 'If it is not final, there is still a process to be done.' The Herald compared the two datasets, one of roughly 750 detainees from early July and the other of roughly 1,400 people from the end of the month. Reporters also searched for all of the detainees in the first list on ICE's detainee locator system. More than 40% of the 750 detainees in the initial list were sent not out of the country but to other ICE facilities, the Herald found. Another 40% were still at the detention center. Alligator Alcatraz detainees often did not appear in ICE's locator system, the Herald found and the fate of the rest — around 150 detainees — is unclear. Some of them were likely still at Alligator Alcatraz but others may have been deported. The numbers in both data sets are snapshots in time, and fluctuate as detainees enter and leave the facility. On Tuesday, there were just shy of 400 detainees at the Everglades detention camp — far below the roughly 1,500 people the makeshift camp is able to hold. In late July, DeSantis said the federal government had deported about 100 people who were held at the detention camp and that 'hundreds' of others had been transferred to deportation hubs in other parts of the country. The state and federal governments have yet to say if any deportation flights have taken off directly from the site and to foreign soil. Attorneys have welcomed the transfers – which make it easier for them to access their clients and advocate on their behalf. At least two detainees were released on bond last week after they were moved elsewhere, according to their attorneys. One detainee trying to leave the country voluntarily had to be transferred to another facility to be deported. Fernando Eduardo Artese, 63, was one of the first detainees to arrive at Alligator Alcatraz. From the start, he wanted to leave the United States voluntarily, but the process to self-deport was not easy in the weeks he spent at the state-run site, his family said .It was only after he was transferred to the federal Krome immigration detention center in Miami that he was able to begin the process of voluntarily leaving the country. Once at Krome, Artese was deported in less than a week, his daughter, Carla Artese, told the Herald/Times. The Argentinian-Italian was sent to Italy. It's not clear whether the difference between Alligator Alcatraz's promoted and practical uses was intentional or accidental. The facility was built with near biblical speed, completed in only eight days, and from its earliest days, detainees complained of toilets that don't flush, bugs and leaky tents. Attorneys quickly flagged that they had no way to speak confidentially with their clients. A federal judge questioned the facility's operation at a hearing in July for a lawsuit related to detainees' legal access. 'A lot of it looked to me like … a new facility not having their act together or getting up and running in the right way,' U.S. District Judge Rodolfo A. Ruiz II said last month in a court hearing. But critics of the facility say that the harsh conditions endured by detainees — and the rhetoric politicians have used to describe the site — are not by accident. DeSantis says reporting about terrible conditions has been inaccurate, but he's in no rush to dispel the narrative. 'Maybe it will have the intent or the effect of deterring people from going there,' the governor said. John Sandweg, the former acting director of ICE during the Obama administration, said the construction and location of the facility makes little sense. It's not near an immigration court or ICE's existing transportation infrastructure. But with backlogs in immigration courts presenting major roadblocks to the Trump administration's stated goal of deporting one million immigrants per year, Sandweg said he believes the purpose of the facility is to encourage undocumented immigrants – whether in custody or not – to bypass the immigration courts and voluntarily leave the country to avoid the possibility of being sent there. 'I think that the real goal of Alligator Alcatraz is to instill fear,' he said. Miami Herald reporter Siena Duncan contributed reporting.
Los Angeles Times
2 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
Residents of a remote island disputed by Colombia hope their Peruvian government won't forget them
SANTA ROSA, Peru — A remote island on the Amazon river — now the subject of a territorial dispute between Peru and Colombia — has a single paved road for a main street, which is home to more nightclubs and evangelical churches than any other businesses. Named after a 16th-century saint, Santa Rosa has no running water or sewage system for its 3,000 residents, who build their one-story homes on stilts to prevent them from flooding every year. People are Peruvian, but they cross the river to neighboring cities in Colombia or Brazil to see a doctor for routine care or an emergency that the rusting local health center cannot handle. 'Our island suffers from many needs,' said Marcos Mera, the owner of a restaurant and dance hall in Santa Rosa, as he wiped sweat from his forehead and set up tables. While the struggles of Mera and his neighbors are not new, their hometown has suddenly become the center of attention for the Peruvian government. The surge in interest even garnered a presidential visit after Colombian President Gustavo Petro disavowed Peruvian jurisdiction over Santa Rosa earlier this month. Peru maintains it owns Santa Rosa Island based on treaties about a century old, but Colombia disputes that ownership because the island had not yet emerged from the Amazon river at the time. Residents see themselves as proud Peruvians even though they rely on other countries for basic needs. Now, they hope their government will not forget them again, a sentiment that President Dina Boluarte acknowledged during a recent visit. 'It's true that, for too long, our border populations have not received the attention they deserve,' Boluarte said Friday during her first-ever visit to the island. Recent tensions between Peru and Colombia have escalated into a series of incidents, including the arrest of three Colombian men who were on the island doing land surveying work. The arrests, described by Petro as 'kidnapping,' prompted a dispute over the workers' rights to be in Santa Rosa. They marked the third binational incident in the area since Petro denied Peru's jurisdiction over Santa Rosa Island in early August. 'We are Peruvians, and if necessary, we will defend our island with pride,' said José Morales outside his currency-exchange house where he trades Peruvian soles, Colombian pesos and U.S. dollars. Residents often carry all three currencies, plus Brazilian reals, at once. Most residents of Santa Rosa collect rainwater, which they filter through a white cloth and then boil, often using wood-burning stoves. Reaching the island takes a two-hour flight from Colombia's capital, Bogota, followed by a five-minute boat ride. In contrast, the trip from Peru's capital, Lima, involves a two-hour flight followed by a 15-hour boat journey. The parents, children and grandchildren of many Santa Rosa residents live in Leticia, Colombia, or Tabatinga, Brazil. Some have also buried their loved ones in those cities, too, as Santa Rosa does not have a cemetery. Several residents said they have a cordial relationship with people in Colombia and Brazil. 'We live peacefully, sharing culture, gastronomy and good ideas,' Mera said before criticizing Colombian politicians saying he thinks they 'have made a mistake.' Some, however, are going as far as thanking Colombia's president for drawing interest to Santa Rosa. 'I have to thank Petro for speaking out like that,' nurse Rudy Ahuanari said. 'In all these blessed years, no minister had ever shown interest in us, but now he has. We were truly forgotten — not even God remembered.' Briceño writes for the Associated Press.
New York Post
2 hours ago
- New York Post
Finnish pol Eemeli Peltonen, 30, found dead in country's parliament after taking his own life
A Finnish politician has been found dead after reportedly committing suicide in the country's parliament, according to local reports. Eemeli Peltonen, 30, a first-term member of parliament for the left-wing Social Democratic Party (SDP), had been suffering from a kidney disease and was on sick leave when he took his own life on Tuesday morning inside Finland's Parliament Building in the capital Helsinki, Finnish outlet YLE reported. Police were called to the parliament just after 11 a.m. on Tuesday after reports that an MP had committed suicide inside the building, and Peltonen was identified later. Advertisement 'The passing of Eemeli Peltonen deeply shocks me and all of us. He was a much-loved member of our community and we will miss him deeply,' chairwoman of the SDP parliamentary group Tytti Tuppurainen said in a statement on Tuesday. 'A young life has ended far too early. We share in the grief of the relatives and wish them strength in their time of mourning.' 3 Finnish MP Eemeli Peltonen, 30, has been found dead inside his country's parliament. Lehtikuva/AFP via Getty Images The exact circumstances surrounding the young politician's death have not been released. Advertisement In his final social media post in June, Peltonen had spoken of his health struggles after being unable to work for much of the spring parliamentary session. 'In May, I got good care at Helsinki University Hospital for kidney problems that suddenly appeared in me, which were diagnosed as minimal change disease. After this, I had time to stay home for a few weeks and prepare to return to everyday life,' he wrote on Instagram. 3 Police were called to the Finnish parliament building in Helsinki on Tuesday morning. LEHTIKUVA/AFP via Getty Images Advertisement 'Later, however, it turned out that I unfortunately contracted bacteria during the treatment period. To control the bacteria, I was started on an intravenous antibiotic course… which will take time. At the same time, the treatment of my kidney problems will continue,' he wrote. 'I have already been discharged from the hospital, but due to the situation, I am on summer sick leave and am now fully focused on recovering from my illness,' he added. 3 Peltonen, who was elected in 2023, had been suffering from kidney disease. Lehtikuva/AFP via Getty Images Peltonen was elected to Finland's parliament in 2023 for Uusimaa, the region surrounding Helsinki. Advertisement He had been a politician since he was a teenager after he was elected to his local city council at 18. He graduated from the University of Helsinki with a Master's degree in political science in 2020.
