The World Today
MADRID, 22 (EUROPA PRESS)
At least six people have died and 76 have been injured in a bomb attack carried out Thursday near a military base in Cali, western Colombia, local authorities reported.
The Cali mayor's office confirmed this toll in a message on its social media account, X, in which it stated that the victims include "eight minors and three adults over 60 years old," while the total number of women and men is the same. Furthermore, four of the patients are in critical condition.
Its mayor, Alejandro Éder, has ordered the "militarization" of the town and offered a reward of up to 400 million pesos (more than 85,400 euros) for information leading to the arrest of the perpetrators of the car bomb attack near the Marco Fidel Suárez Air Base, at around 2:50 p.m. (local time).
Colombian President Gustavo Petro has announced the arrest of a member of the Central General Staff (EMC), one of the dissident groups of the defunct FARC guerrilla group, who allegedly participated in the attack. The Prosecutor's Office has confirmed that two men have been brought into custody in connection with the attack.
From Cali, where he participated in an emergency security council meeting attended by local and military authorities, Petro ruled out declaring a state of emergency in the country, arguing that "we already have the tools (...) experience already allows us to continue cornering the forces that are called the EMC here."
In statements to the press at the end of the meeting, he again described the attack as a "terrorist reaction" to the defeats inflicted by the Colombian Army on the Carlos Patiño column in Micaí.
"More than 250,000 rounds of ammunition recovered by the State, five houses filled with explosives, 200 rifle parts... With that, we've achieved victory in the place where there is the most coca leaf in the entire department of Cauca, close to 60 to 70 percent of the total. This is the reaction, a reaction that, as you know, ends up hitting the population massively," he said.
"They didn't hit the military installation, which belongs to the Colombian Aerospace Force, but the blow to the people of Cali is undoubtedly profound, brutal, and terrifying," he lamented, before announcing the expansion of the military presence in "towns like Suárez, Buenos Aires, and Jamundí."
Thus, he warned that these groups "have been misnamed dissidents, because in reality they are current drug trafficking gangs, coordinated internationally." "We are facing an international mafia, with armed gangs here. This is not a political confrontation; it exploits the region's social weakness," he asserted.
"Terrorism is the new expression of the factions that claim to be led by Iván Mordisco and that have subordinated themselves to the control of the drug trafficking junta," he lamented, vowing to pursue these groups as "terrorist organizations."
In this regard, Defense Minister Pedro Sánchez noted that Colombian authorities are offering a reward of 3.3 billion pesos (650 euros) for 'Marlon' and 1.65 billion pesos (350 euros) for alias 'Kevin,' another leader of the group whom he also blamed for the attack in Cali.
