An explosive device that detonated in front of a police command post – CAI – in Bogotá’s southern locality of Ciudad Bolívar killed a 12-year old, and injured 10 others, including six minors and a member of the police force. One of the minors, a 5-year-old girl, remains in critical condition at the Meissen hospital.
The blast broke the windows of some 60 houses in the neighborhood of Arborizadora Alta. Moments after the explosion ripped through this low-income community, Mayor Claudia López arrived at the scene, accompanied by President Iván Duque, Chief of Police General Jorge Luis Vargas, and Defense Minister Diego Molano.
Mayor López offered a COP$300 million reward (US$70,000) for information leading to the arrest of the perpetrators. “I am in the CAI of Arborizadora Alta, activating all existing mechanisms to find those who attacked our community. We will be implacable against these terrorists,” stated Molano.
The attack occurred on the same night as the center-right candidate Federico “Fico” Gutiérrez announced his presidential running mate, Rodrigo Lara Sánchez, and son of the former Minister of Justice Rodrigo Lara Bonilla who was murdered on the streets of Bogotá in 1984 by hitmen of Pablo Escobar’s Medellín cartel. Lara Sánchez is a chest and throat surgeon by profession, was elected Mayor of Neiva (2016-2019) and named among the best Mayors in Colombia. He also writes a weekly column in the regional newspaper La Crónica.
On Saturday, Mayor López will hold a security council meeting in Arborizadora Alta and meet the residents affected by the attack. López strongly condemned the attack on social media, stating: “By attacking our Police, they attack an entire community, families and children. Criminal cowardice that we will continue to fight until the perpetrators and brought to justice.”
