Three Colombian police officers were injured on Sunday after a drone dropped explosives on a police station in the town of El Bordo, Cauca, marking the second time the town’s police have been attacked in less than two months.
Although no group has claimed responsibility for the attack at the time of publication, Colombian authorities are reportedly attributing the incident to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) Marxist terrorist group, which has launched similar terrorist attacks across Cauca in recent weeks.
The Colombian newspaper El Tiempo detailed that the police station was attacked in the afternoon hours of Sunday. Initial reports indicated that unknown armed men detonated the drone from a nearby location, directly hitting the police station. Local authorities immediately launched security operations to locate those responsible and prevent further attacks.
Police sources told the Spanish news agency EFE that the officers were hit by shrapnel from the explosion and that one out of the three injured is in a more serious condition due to the extent of his injuries.
Further reports published on Monday morning indicated FARC launched the Sunday attack in retaliation for ongoing military operations against the terrorist group in the Cauca region.
Days before the attack, the Ombudsman’s Office of Colombia reportedly warned local authorities of possible violent actions in Cauca amid ongoing armed conflicts in some of the region’s towns. The Office specifically mentioned the “Carlos Patiño” front, one of FARC’s several branches under the leadership of Néstor Gregorio Vera Fernández, also known as “Ivan Mordisco,” which recently launched a new wave of Marxist terror in nearby municipalities.
Roughly a week before Sunday’s attack, FARC forces reportedly led by Mordisco launched a new wave of Marxist terror and detonated a vehicle loaded with explosives near a military base in the city of Cali, Valle del Cauca, killing six and leaving 76 injured. Hours before the August bomb attack, another group of FARC forces attacked a police helicopter near the rural town of Amalfi, Antioquia, killing 13 officers.
Sunday’s drone incident marks the second terrorist attack against the same police station in el Bordo in less than two months. In June, FARC detonated a vehicle loaded with explosives in El Bordo and another one in Corinto, Cauca. No injuries and only material damages to a police station, nearby homes, and commercial establishments were reported in the June attacks.
Those bombings were attributed to other FARC branches also reportedly led by Mordisco. The two incidents were part of a broader wave of 24 near-simultaneous deadly bomb attacks across Cauca and the neighboring Valle del Cauca region that killed eight and left at least 78 injured.
“In El Bordo, the Western Bloc of FARC dissidents once again attacked our security forces. In less than two months, the police station has suffered two attacks: first with a car bomb and today with drones, which left three officers wounded and now under medical care,” Governor of Cauca Octavio Guzman wrote on social media on Sunday.
“We strongly condemn these acts and call on the national government to strengthen intelligence and monitoring, ensure a sustained operational presence, and reinforce anti-drone systems and targeted patrols,” he continued. “The families of Cauca deserve to live in peace. We are committed to working to ensure that the future is written with security, dignity, and opportunities, not fear.”
In recent months, FARC, a decades-old terrorist organization that supposedly “abandoned terrorism” and “demobilized” after signing a purported “peace deal” in 2016, has increased its violent actions throughout Colombia.
The “peace deal,” signed during the administration of former Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, awarded numerous benefits to FARC’s leadership including legal immunity and uncontested congressional seats. Santos won a Nobel Peace Prize that year for his efforts.
Since then, the Colombian government and mainstream media claim that the active FARC forces are a “dissident” faction and that the “true” FARC is the leadership in the capital city of Bogotá. In reality, FARC maintained its narco-terrorist activities and continues to carry out terrorist attacks eight years after signing its lauded “peace deal.”
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