Colombian guerrilla fighters launched deadly attacks on Monday, killing two police officers and two others in separate incidents involving gunfire and explosives in the country’s troubled southwest, according to officials.
Defense Minister Ivan Velasquez attributed one of the attacks to rebels from the Central General Staff (EMC) in the town of Morales, located in the Cauca department.
These rebels had rejected a peace agreement signed by the FARC Marxist guerrilla group and the government in 2016.
The EMC militants carried out the attack by opening fire and detonating cylinder bombs at a police station in Morales.
Their actions resulted in the deaths of two officers and two individuals in the prison cells, leading Velasquez to denounce the incident as a “terrorist attack.”
Three other officers sustained injuries during the attack.
The army deployed 100 soldiers to the town, where police director William Salamanca reported the discovery of additional explosive devices in the streets.
The police station, observed by AFP, lay in ruins with numerous bullet marks on its facade, evoking memories of deadly raids by the now-defunct FARC in the 1990s.
“It was two hours of anguish,” recounted a resident of Morales who preferred to remain anonymous.
Defense Minister Velasquez visited Popayan, the capital of Cauca department, following President Gustavo Petro’s request, where he noted reports of “harassment” by guerrillas in several other towns.
Petro condemned the situation in Cauca as “unacceptable”.
“We will not tolerate the ongoing terror inflicted on the population through these terrorist attacks,” he stated on X.
In the adjacent department of Valle del Cauca to the north, authorities reported that a motorcycle laden with explosives exploded, injuring four individuals, including three children.
These two departments are focal points of EMC activity, led by guerrilla commander Ivan Mordisco, who withdrew from a peace process in April following internal discord within the group, which had previously united around 3,500 fighters.
The government has initiated an offensive against Mordisco’s factions while simultaneously pursuing negotiations with the other faction.
YOU MAY ALSO READ: Australia, New Zealand to evacuate Nationals from New Caledonia amid deadly riots