The vice president of Colombia denounces an attempted attack with explosives

The vice president of Colombia, Francia Márquez, denounced this Tuesday a plan to attempt on his life an explosive device that has been defused for your security team.

“Members of my security team found a device with more than 7 kilos of explosive material on the road leading to my family residence,” Márquez reported on his Twitter account in the southwest of the country.

The bomb “was destroyed in a controlled manner by the explosion-proof personnel” of the police”, added the vice president, who described the incident as “a new attempt on my life”.

In 2019 – before taking office – he was subjected to an attack with grenades and rifle bursts for his work as a environmental activist in the department of Cauca, where he still lives and where the deactivated explosives were planted on Tuesday.

“It is a plastic bag the inside of which contains a high-powered explosive substance based on ammonium nitrate, powdered aluminum and (…) nail tips”, details a report by the vice-presidency’s security team released by Márquez.

The escorts discovered the explosive after being alerted to “suspicious persons” and “foreign elements” on the road leading to the village of Yolombó, in the municipality of Suárez, where a visit from the vice president was expected.

“Due to the characteristics and location of the personal intelligence and security artifact, it was concluded that this was an obvious attack on the vice president,” the official report said.

Along with President Gustavo Petro, Márquez is part of the first center-left government in Colombia’s history, which seeks to defuse the six-decade armed conflict by negotiating with a mix of armed groups that continue to operate after the peace deal that disarmed the powerful FARC guerillas in 2017.

His predecessor, the conservative Iván Duque, was the target of an attack in June 2021, when unknown persons fired rifle bursts at the helicopter in which he was travelling.

Violence and threats

Petro and Márquez carried out their campaign amidst strong security measures, in a country weighed down by political assassinations. Five presidential candidates were assassinated during the 20th century.

In late May of last year, on the eve of the first presidential round, the then-candidate was lasered at a public campaign event and her security team jumped onto the stage to surround her with armored shields.

An 18-year-old man turned himself in to the authorities, explaining that he had aimed a laser he had bought online at Márquez.

In August, a few days after Petro’s seizure of power, a vehicle from the presidential outpost was subjected to a shooting attack while traveling on a highway in the northeast of the country.

An entourage member was arrested and released hours later by an unidentified armed group.

The vice president has also been the target of a cascade of racial slurs since taking office.

In September last year, the prosecutor’s office opened an investigation into a woman who called Marquez a “monkey” during a demonstration by opponents.

Born into a poor family, Márquez became a single mother at 16, fled her homeland threatened with death, cleaned houses to survive, and studied law before entering politics.

The explosive was found in one of the most violent departments from Colombia.

Fight for drug trafficking

Former rebels of the Farc, dissidents of the peace pact, and guerrillas of the ELN – the last insurrection recognized in the country – vie for the proceeds of drug trafficking in Cauca, where coca leaves, the main ingredient of cocaine, are abundantly grown.

The dissidents are part of the six-month bilateral ceasefire proclaimed by Petro on New Year’s Eve.

The truce announcement initially included the ELN, but the rebels last week refuted the government, claiming the ceasefire was not part of the first round of peace negotiations they are holding with executive delegates.

In response, the government ordered the persecution of the organization’s 3,500 guerrillas to resume.

The talks will enter their second round later this month.

Source: AFP and AP

B. C