Police Station and Highway Attacked in Colombia With Explosives

Half of the Panamericana highway was destroyed by explosives.

Published 13 April 2024

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The Government and the Central General Staff (EMC), the main dissidence of the former FARC, are conducting a peace negotiation as part of which they agreed last October a bilateral ceasefire.

Two attacks with explosives, one against a police station and the other on the main road in southwestern Colombia, were perpetrated in the department of Cauca, which is experiencing a security crisis that has worsened since the ceasefire broke out in that region.

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Octavio Guzmán, governor of the department of Cauca, confirmed the attack on Saturday. He explained that on Friday night unknown persons activated "a small-range explosive device in the Police Station" of the municipality of Guachené, and made "explode an artifact in the Pan American (via), leaving material damage and an injured person".

"The call to the violent to unblock the fratricidal war and seek a negotiated solution, but with true will. I fully support our security forces so that we can regain security and so that the population does not suffer the onslaught of the armed. El Cauca deserves peace and we cannot normalize violence and make invisible a reality that hurts us today," Guzmán said.

#Atención | Sobre las 4:50 a.m. fue activado un artefacto explosivo en la vía Panamericana en el sector El Túnel, municipio de Cajibío, sentido Popayán - Cali.

Preliminarmente se reporta una persona herida. pic.twitter.com/X4pDiY0sKE
— W Radio Colombia (@WRadioColombia) April 13, 2024

The post reads: " Around 4:50 a.m. an explosive device was activated on the Pan-American Highway in the El Túnel sector, municipality of Cajibío, direction Popayán - Cali. Preliminary report of an injured person."

"We must rethink the model of negotiations and reinforce the actions of the security forces with more personnel and the tools needed to combat crime. It is necessary that the Army and all the public forces be in the capitals and all the territories with greater deployment," added Governor Guzmán.

On the other hand Defense Minister Ivan Velasquez said that "no matter how much pressure is exerted by these illegal organizations", the government will not decline "the decision to suspend the cessation, offensive operations will continue to be carried out by the security forces".

The Government and the Central General Staff (EMC), the main dissidence of the former FARC, are conducting a peace negotiation as part of which they agreed last October a bilateral ceasefire. Given the repeated attacks by the EMC, mainly against indigenous communities in Cauca, last month the Government suspended the ceasefire in that department and in the neighbors of Valle del Cauca and Nariño.