A terrorist attack in the municipality of Tibú, in northeastern Colombia, for which responsibility has not yet been claimed, killed a woman and two police officers and injured 10 people.
Police in the Norte de Santander department said on Wednesday that the attack occurred when a police patrol on its way to a military base was attacked with explosives on a road.
Among the ten injured are four police officers, one of whom was seriously injured and hospitalized in the intensive care unit of a hospital in the department’s capital, Cúcuta.
The director of the Colombian police, General William Salamanca, offered a reward of up to 200 million pesos (about 42,000 euros) for information about the perpetrators of the attack.
The Norte de Santander government responded to the attack on the social network Twitter: “We cannot tolerate more killings or violent actions by armed groups. We reject the events that ended the lives of several people.”
The Nortesantandereans are being ravaged by so much violence and we demand that the armed groups stop acting immediately and allow us to live in peace in a territory.
– Gobernación de Norte de Santander (@GoberNorte) May 25, 2023
The authorities indicated that Defense Minister Iván Velásquez should preside over a security council in Tibú today.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro also denounced “the terrorist action in Tibú, in the north of Santander, against the lives” of police officers.
“A hug of solidarity to the families of the victims of this heinous act. This criminal act will not go unpunished,” Petro promised, also on Twitter.
I denounce the terrorist action in Tibú, north of Santander, against the lives of our police. A hug of solidarity to the families of the victims of this heinous crime. This criminal act will not go unpunished.
– Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) May 24, 2023
Tibú is part of one of the poorest regions of Colombia, Catatumbo, with more than ten thousand square kilometers of mostly virgin forest, in the department of Norte de Santander.
In this part of the country, which borders Venezuela, there are guerrillas from the National Liberation Army (ELN) and dissidents from the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), as well as a stronghold of the Popular Liberation Army (EPL). ) and other groups fighting for drug trafficking corridors and coca plantations.
Gustavo Petro on Monday suspended the ceasefire with the main dissident group of the former FARC guerrilla group in four regions of the country after the rebels killed four indigenous minors.
As part of an ambitious “total peace” plan for Colombia, Petro has been trying for several months to negotiate with the guerrillas and other armed groups active in the country, often associated with drug trafficking, especially dissidents from the former FARC, but also from the ELN. , paramilitary groups and criminal groups such as the Clan of the Gulf.
Source: DN
