(Morales) Four people, including two police officers, were killed in separate attacks by FARC guerrilla dissidents in southwest Colombia, authorities said Monday.
The fighters of the group, which rejects the 2016 peace agreement with this Marxist guerrilla, first attacked at dawn a bank and a police station in the locality of Morales, in the department of Cauca.
Two police officers were killed, as well as two detainees incarcerated within the police station, Defense Minister Ivan Velasquez said during a press conference, who condemned a “terrorist attack”.
Three police officers were also injured, but are “out of danger”, again according to the minister.
The clashes stopped in the afternoon, after the army regained control of the town, noted an AFP photographer on site.
Soldiers and police then carried out a security operation in the streets of the city due to the possible presence of explosive devices planted by the attackers.
The AFP photographer saw the attacked police station partially destroyed and bearing multiple bullet holes, images reminiscent of the deadly incursions of the defunct FARC in the 1990s, when the Marxist rebellion was at the height of its power. power.
“It was like two hours of anxiety,” said a resident of Morales, on condition of anonymity.
Minister Velasquez also reported “harassment” by the guerrillas in several other municipalities in the region, Dagua, Suarez and Jambalo.
In the neighboring department of Valle del Cauca, a motorcycle loaded with explosives exploded in Jamundi, injuring four people, including three minors.
President Gustavo Petro called the situation in Cauca “unacceptable.” “We will not tolerate the population continuing to be terrorized by terrorist attacks,” the president wrote on the social network X.
These departments of Cauca and Valle del Cauca are strongholds of the EMC (Central Staff), the main faction of the FARC dissidence.
Peace negotiations began in October 2023 with this group, now divided and only a small part of which continues to discuss with the government, while the army confronts the fighters who have resumed hostilities.