Explosive Car Detonates in Colombian Town

A car loaded with explosives detonated overnight in a small town in southwestern Colombia in an attack that would have been directed at a police station, leaving at least two civilians injured, authorities reported.

President Gustavo Petro pointed out as a possible author the Central General Staff (EMC), the largest dissident of the extinct Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrilla that did not sign the 2016 peace agreement with the State.

This is the first attack with explosives after that armed group warned civilians to stay away from any military and police units to avoid being victims of their attacks.

The police detailed that the car bomb explosion occurred in the southern part of the police station in the municipality of Miranda, in the department of Cauca. The two injured people were civilians and, according to the preliminary report, they had received shrapnel from the explosive device.

“The reaction of the Cauca fronts of the EMC is because the government blocks the exit of cocaine into the Pacific. No more financing of war and death,” said Petro from X.

The government maintains a dialogue table with the Central General Staff to seek negotiated solutions to the violence. However, the process has been going through a crisis since March after armed groups attacked the civilian population and caused the death of an indigenous leader.

Consequently, the government suspended the bilateral ceasefire in the departments of Cauca, Nariño and Valle del Cauca, in the southwest of the country. A week ago, dissidents were accused of being behind several attacks with explosives that caused the death of a police officer and the injury of nine people, including three civilians.

The Central General Staff claims to be the “heir” of the FARC and does not accept being called a “dissident.”