A drone loaded with explosives was found five kilometers from Bogota’s airport in Colombia, which also houses a military air base on Wednesday. This discovery comes in a very tense climate as the presidential election approaches, scheduled for May 31.
A drone loaded with explosives was discovered Wednesday, May 6 near the international airport of Bogota, which also houses military installations, a Colombian army official said on Friday.
The device was found five kilometers from the Catam military air base, adjacent to El Dorado international airport, in a context of pressure from armed groups in Colombia as the presidential election on May 31 approaches.
Violent clashes in the southwest of the country
Drones are commonly used by guerrillas, mainly those of the National Liberation Army (ELN) and dissidents from the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to attack military bases or police stations.
“The signs (of the presence of the drone) came from the public prosecutor’s office in Cauca,” a department in the southwest of the country where the Colombian army and guerrillas are engaged in violent combat, an army official told AFP.
This region has large areas of illicit coca cultivation – the main ingredient of cocaine of which Colombia is the world’s leading producer – and is the stronghold of the EMC dissident group, under the command of Ivan Modrisco, the country’s most wanted criminal who turned his back on the historic 2016 peace agreement with the FARC.
A bomb attack at the end of April
EMC admitted its responsibility for the bomb attack on April 25 that killed 21 civilians, but claimed it was a “mistake,” saying they intended to target the army that is hunting down their fighters.
Gustavo Petro, the first leftist president of Colombia who will leave power on August 7, had started a process of “total peace” with the various armed groups in Colombia but did not reach an agreement with any of them.
Ivan Cepeda, leading in the polls and from the same party as Gustavo Petro, said that if he wins, he will seek to end 60 years of internal conflict through dialogue, against the backdrop of narco-trafficking that finances guerrillas and cartels.
The right-wing candidates competing for a spot in the second round, Abelardo de la Espriella and Paloma Valencia, reject the principle of dialogue with armed groups and promise to confront them head-on.
