Symbolic imageCar bombing and drone attack follow Colombian president's inauguration
Two explosive attacks struck Colombia on Saturday, the first full day of Abelardo de la Espriella's government, which promised a harsh response.
The army said dissidents of the former FARC guerrilla blew up a toll plaza under construction at Santander de Quilichao in Cauca in the early hours of Saturday, 8 August, injuring two security guards; one told investigators that a man left the car behind and fled on a motorcycle. The military blamed two splinter groups that rejected the 2016 peace accord. Police said a drone attack on a station in Cesar killed an officer the same night, without naming a group. De la Espriella wrote on X that there would be no impunity.
War on ‘narco-terrorism’
Sworn in at Cali on Friday, 7 August, De la Espriella told troops that the option of dialogue was ‘completely exhausted’ and pledged to defeat narco-terrorism, ending Petro's ‘Total Peace’. The government said 117 prisoners from those peace talks were moved to maximum-security jails.
Washington's billion
The US State Department said on Friday it intends, with Congress, to announce $1 billion in assistance for the new government, aimed at shared goals including organised crime and illegal immigration. Colombia will join Trump's Shield of the Americas, De la Espriella said.
Other opinions
Al Jazeera frames the aid within the Trump administration's push to expand US military involvement in Latin America; Serbia's Politika reported the bombing without mentioning it.