The 33rd Front of the Farc dissidents, which operates in Catatumbo, on the border with Venezuela, and is commanded by alias John Mechas, claimed the attack last saturday against a police post in southern Bogota, in which a 12-year-old boy and a 5-year-old girl died.
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The Police confirmed this Monday the claim in a video that circulates of the dissidents, saying that “coincides with the investigations carried out by the Bogotá Metropolitan Police“, and the Colombian president, Iván Duque, also attributed it to that group.
In the video, published by local media, a guerrilla recounts the activities of the dissidents, including the “activation of an explosive charge in Ciudad Bolívar, in Bogotá, against the Police CAI“.
Police are working with the US FBI to find the whereabouts of ‘Jhon Mechas’, for which the US offers 5 million dollars and Colombia 3,000 million pesos (almost 800,000 dollars), said the director of the Police, General Jorge Luis Vargas.
To the same front is attributed the attempt, of last June 25, against the helicopter in which the president traveled Ivan Duke along with other officials, when he was about to land in Cúcuta, capital of the department of Norte de Santander. Everyone came out of that unharmed.
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The 33rd Front of the dissidents, which is supposedly hiding in Venezuela, is also blamed for another car bomb attack last year against the military brigade No. 30, based in Cúcuta, which left 36 people injured.
This Saturday’s attack with explosives against an Immediate Attention Command (CAI) of the Police, located in the Arborizadora Alta neighborhood, in the town of Ciudad Bolívar, one of the poorest in the Colombian capital, caused the death of children Daniel Steven Duke, 12 years old, and Ivanna Salome Rangel Molina 5 years old, who had been diagnosed with brain death and died this Monday.
Farewell tribute to Daniel Steven Duque, one of the dead children.
“We are saddened by the death of Ivanna Rangel, a victim of the cowardly terrorism of the FARC dissidents. With deep pain, we express our condolences to her family. We will not rest until we find those responsible for this atrocious attack that mourns the countryPresident Duque said.
The authorities offered a reward of 300 million pesos (about 80,000 dollars) for information on those responsible for the attack.
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On March 5, a similar explosion occurred near the police station in the Sierra Morena neighborhood, which is also part of the town of Bolivar City, the fourth most populous in Bogotá, with more than 700,000 inhabitants, but it only caused material damage.
EFE
