At least 13 people were killed and numerous others were injured in two different incidents in Colombia on Thursday. This is the most recent in a string of armed group terrorism this year that has Colombians worried about a return to their country's bloodier history.
In Cali, the third-largest city in Colombia, a truck bomb exploded Thursday close to a military camp, killing at least six people and injuring dozens more. Social media users posted videos of wounded victims and debris scattered on the ground close to a burning car.
Earlier in the day, a drone in the Antioquia region's rural Amalfi area brought down a police helicopter involved in an anti-narcotics operation. At least eight police officers lost their lives, while another eight were hurt. The helicopter seems to have been involved in a manual eradication effort for coca, the base plant used to make cocaine.
Colombian officials attributed the violence to breakaway units of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, a demobilized rebel organization, however it is yet unclear which groups are behind the attacks. In 2016, the organization signed a historic peace agreement, but some members rejected the terms and went back to combat.
Due to the leftist government of Gustavo Petro's failed attempts to negotiate peace with armed groups throughout the nation, Colombia has experienced some of its worst bloodshed since the peace accords since the beginning of this year. Promises of a "total peace" plan helped elect Petro, the nation's first Marxist president and a former rebel. However, those negotiations have fallen through, and attacks by various armed groups have increased.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other U.S. officials have harshly condemned the Petro government for what appears to be its incapacity to curb armed violence and a spike in cocaine manufacturing in the nation.
In an X article, Elizabeth Dickinson, a senior analyst for the International Crisis Group, stated, "Two horrific attacks in Cali and Amalfi mark an alarming deterioration in respect for basic rules of combat." "A worrying development in Colombia's reframed conflict is the growing use and dependence on asymmetric attacks."
.jpeg)
