Seven police officers were killed in an explosives attack in western Colombia on Friday, the government said. This was the deadliest attack on security forces since President Gustavo Petro took office promising to end the country’s nearly 60-year conflict.
A former member of the M-19 guerrilla, Petro has pledged to seek “total peace” by restarting talks with leftist ELN rebels, applying a 2016 peace accord to former FARC guerrilla fighters who reject it, and negotiating the surrender of crime gangs in exchange for reduced sentences.
“I forcefully reject the attack with explosives in San Luis, Huila,” Petro said on Twitter, quoting a death toll of eight, which was later revised. “These acts are a clear sabotage to total peace.”
Rechazo contundentemente el ataque con explosivos donde murieron 8 policías en San Luis, Huila. Solidaridad con sus familias. Estos hechos expresan un claro saboteo a la paz total. He pedido a las autoridades desplazarse al territorio para asumir la investigación.
— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) September 2, 2022
Seven police officers – including three aged 20 or under – were killed and one was injured, the country’s police and attorney general’s office clarified late on Friday.
Petro went to regional capital Neiva with along with his defense minister and other officials for a security meeting following the attack. The vehicle in which the officials were traveling was hit with explosives, the national police said in a statement.
Petro did not name anybody, but mainly dissidents from the now-demobilized Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels are active in the area, according to security sources.
The government says that dissident groups reject the peace accord negotiated by their former leadership and count some 2,400 fighters in their ranks.
Colombia’s long-running conflict between the government, leftist guerrillas, right-wing paramilitaries and drug trafficking gangs has taken the lives of at least 4,50,000 people between 1985 and 2018 alone.
