{"id":2955,"date":"2019-01-18T20:22:16","date_gmt":"2019-01-18T20:22:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/?p=2955"},"modified":"2019-01-18T20:22:16","modified_gmt":"2019-01-18T20:22:16","slug":"bogota-car-bomb-colombia-blames-eln-rebels-for-deadly-explosion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/2019\/01\/18\/bogota-car-bomb-colombia-blames-eln-rebels-for-deadly-explosion\/","title":{"rendered":"Bogot\u00e1 car bomb: Colombia blames ELN rebels for deadly explosion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Colombia has blamed the left-wing National Liberation Army (ELN) rebel group for a car bomb attack that killed 21 people in the capital, Bogot\u00e1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dozens more were injured in Thursday&#8217;s blast after an explosives-laden vehicle broke into the grounds of a police academy before it detonated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The driver, who was also killed, has been identified as a 57-year-old man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">President Ivan Duque put peace talks with the ELN on hold when he took power in 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Any restart to the negotiations is unlikely following the attack, the deadliest in the country in many years, correspondents say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/world-latin-america-35929399\">ELN peace talks: What are the challenges?<\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What has the government said?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The driver, named earlier as Jos\u00e9 Aldemar Rojas Rodr\u00edguez, was a long-time ELN member and the group&#8217;s top explosives expert, Defence Minister Guillermo Botero said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The suspect, known by his war alias &#8220;El Mocho&#8221; or &#8220;Kiko&#8221;, had lost his right hand in an accident with an explosive and was based in the northern department of Arauca, from where he frequently crossed into Venezuela.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;This was an operation that has been planned for the past 10 months,&#8221; Mr Botero said, adding that the guerrillas were the &#8220;intellectual authors&#8221; behind the driver&#8217;s attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A second man who had &#8220;participated&#8221; in the carrying out of the attack was arrested in Bogot\u00e1, Attorney General N\u00e9stor Humberto Mart\u00ednez said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/world-latin-america-19390026\">Colombia country profile<\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/624\/cpsprodpb\/0823\/production\/_105238020_0375821b-0501-4d0b-8988-607ccd598157.jpg\" alt=\"Citizens and police hold candles during a vigil at the Francisco de Paula Santander General Police Cadet School in Bogota\" \/><figcaption>Image captionA vigil was held in Bogot\u00e1 on Thursday to honour the victims<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">President Duque, who visited the site of the explosion on Thursday, described the attack as a &#8220;crazy terrorist act&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;We won&#8217;t rest until we capture and bring to justice the terrorists involved,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Colombians have never yielded to terrorism, we have always defeated it. This will not be an exception.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Colombia&#8217;s High Commissioner for Peace Miguel Ceballos said there would be &#8220;no space for dialogue with the ELN until they hand over all the kidnapped people and completely renounce their criminal acts.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What do we know about the explosion?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The grey Nissan Patrol entered the compound of the General Santander police academy in the south of Bogot\u00e1 where a promotion ceremony for cadets was being held.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When the car was stopped by guards at a checkpoint, the driver accelerated and hit a wall, at which point the vehicle exploded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The vehicle was carrying 80kg (176lb) of the powerful explosive pentolite, which has been used in the past by Colombia&#8217;s rebel guerrilla groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The blast at 09:30 local time (14:30 GMT) shattered windows of nearby buildings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/624\/cpsprodpb\/31DA\/production\/_105226721_00f5fedb-0b35-4ca6-bced-6b2f80e9df06.jpg\" alt=\"Members of the Colombian Technical Investigation Team (CTI) work at the place where a bomb car caused an explosion\" \/><figcaption>Image captionThe explosion happened outside a school for police cadets<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Twenty of the victims were police cadets aged between 17 and 22, Mr Botero said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At least 68 people were injured but the majority of those have since been discharged from hospital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Who are the ELN rebels?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/624\/cpsprodpb\/62B3\/production\/_89776252_9a06a13c-7833-4f64-8d0e-fbdb09126149.jpg\" alt=\"Guerrilla soldiers of the National Liberation (ELN),on patrol in Sarare, 27 February, 2000 in the Department of Arauca\" \/><figcaption>Image captionThe group has been fighting the Colombian state for more than five decades<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The 2,000-strong guerrilla group was founded in 1964 to fight against Colombia&#8217;s unequal distribution of land and riches, inspired by the Cuban revolution of 1959<\/li><li>Over the decades, the group has attacked large landholders and multinational companies, and repeatedly blown up oil pipelines<\/li><li>To finance itself it has resorted to extortion, kidnappings and drug trafficking<\/li><li>It has been strongest in rural areas<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What&#8217;s the current situation in Colombia?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Car bombs were not uncommon during the decades-long conflict between the Colombian government and left-wing rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But an explosion of a car bomb of this size is something that has not happened in a long time in Bogot\u00e1 and it took the city by surprise, BBC Mundo Colombia correspondent Boris Miranda reports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Colombia has significantly reduced bomb attacks and murders in recent years but the attack shows that it is a continuing fear for citizens, our correspondent adds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Farc signed a peace agreement with the government in November 2016 and the group has since become a political party of the same name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The party&#8217;s leader,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AlapePastorFARC\/status\/1085930481168859136\">Pastor Alape, condemned the attack.<\/a>, calling it a &#8220;provocation against the political way out of the conflict&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Peace talks between the smaller ELN and the previous government of President Juan Manuel Santos stalled, and President Duque, who takes a more hardline approach to the group, has not resumed them.<br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Colombia has blamed the left-wing National Liberation Army (ELN) rebel group for a car bomb attack that killed 21 people in the capital, Bogot\u00e1. Dozens more were injured in Thursday&#8217;s blast after an explosives-laden vehicle broke into the grounds of a police academy before it detonated. The driver, who was also killed, has been identified as a 57-year-old man. President&#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/2019\/01\/18\/bogota-car-bomb-colombia-blames-eln-rebels-for-deadly-explosion\/\">Read more &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/91"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2955"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2955\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2956,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2955\/revisions\/2956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}