Colombian authorities investigating a deadly car bombing near the city of CĂșcuta, close to the border with Venezuela, say the vehicle had been parked in the area for five days before it exploded outside a police station in the town of Los Patios. The blast killed one civilian and injured 11 people, including two police officers.
According to Major General Ricardo Augusto AlarcĂłn Campos, head of Colombia’s national police service, the car was stolen in July 2024, fitted with a radio-frequency detonation system, and packed with roughly 80 kilograms (about 176 pounds) of ammonium nitrate-based explosive known as amonal. He attributed the attack to the Carlos GermĂĄn Velasco Urban War Front, a unit of the leftist National Liberation Army, or ELN, a guerrilla group that has waged an armed insurgency in Colombia for decades and often operates across the porous Venezuelan border.
Investigators say the vehicle was likely assembled on the Venezuelan side before being driven into Colombian territory, echoing a similar attack on August 1 against police headquarters in Norte de Santander state, which also reportedly involved a car bomb built in Venezuela and smuggled in through unofficial border crossings.
A source familiar with anti-ELN operations said such patterns highlight weak security cooperation between the two nations, which armed groups exploit. Investigators are focusing on an ELN operative known as ‘el Rolo,’ who reportedly takes orders from regional commander Luz Amanda Pallares Pallares, alias ‘Silvana Guerrero.’
You can read the full original report at El Tiempo.
Image: lman, BY-ND 2.0 (via Openverse).