Bogota, Colombia – Colombian authorities said Friday that a one-armed explosives expert belonging to the country’s last remaining rebel group carried out a car…
Bogota, Colombia – Colombian authorities said Friday that a one-armed explosives expert belonging to the country’s last remaining rebel group carried out a car bombing against a police academy that left 21 dead, raising tough questions about lingering security threats in the wake of a peace deal with FARC rebels.
Defense Minister Guillermo Botero said at a press conference that the man who carried out Thursday’s brazen attack, Jose Aldemar Rojas, was a member of the National Liberation Army, or ELN, and known by his alias Mocho Kiko.
Even though Rojas had no criminal record, intelligence reports and testimony in legal cases indicate Rojas had lost his arm manipulating explosives during his long career in the ELN rebel cell near the border with Venezuela, Chief Prosecutor Nestor Martinez said.
Overnight, the death toll from the Thursday morning bombing more than doubled to 21, making it the deadliest attack in Colombia in over a decade.
It proved especially unsettling because the target, the General Santander school, is one of the most protected installations in the capital.
President Ivan Duque, visiting the academy in the aftermath, was careful not to attribute blame to any armed group even while condemning what he called a “miserable” terrorist act that recalled some of the bloodiest chapters of Colombia’s recent past.
“The terrorists are looking to intimidate us as a society and attack the state,” Duque said in a televised address in which he declared three days of mourning. “Colombia will demonstrate that it is a strong state, united and won’t break in the face of the dementia of these aggressions.
