Colombia Blames Deadly Bogota Car Bombing On ELN Rebels

The Colombian government on Friday blamed leftist ELN rebels for the bombing of a police academy in Bogota that killed 20 people as well as the attacker, and dealt a body blow to the peace process

Bogota, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 19th Jan, 2019 ) :The Colombian government on Friday blamed leftist ELN rebels for the bombing of a police academy in Bogota that killed 20 people as well as the attacker, and dealt a body blow to the peace process.

Defense Minister Guillermo Botero, speaking from the presidential palace, described Thursday's car bombing as a long-planned "terrorist attack committed by the ELN." The attack is a major setback to two years of peace talks with the National Liberation Army (ELN) -- first hosted by Ecuador and currently by Cuba -- that failed to go beyond the exploratory stage before stalling when hard-right President Ivan Duque took power in August 2018.

In the wake of the attack, Duque announced that he was reinstating arrest warrants for 10 ELN members who are part of the group's delegation to the Cuba talks and said he was revoking "the resolution creating the conditions that allow their stay in that country." "The national government knows and understands that the ELN has no will for peace," Colombia's peace commissioner Miguel Ceballos told reporters earlier.

Botero told the same press conference he had "full evidence" that the bomber -- earlier identified as Jose Aldemar Rojas Rodriguez, 56 -- has been a member of the ELN for more than 25 years.

Police said Rojas drove his explosives-packed Nissan pick-up into the cadet school compound, slewing around a vehicle checkpoint, and crashing it into a dormitory building before it detonated.

Some 80 kilos (around 175 Pounds) of explosives was used to set off a massive blast that also wounded 68 people. Ten were still being treated in hospital on Friday.

Botero said that at this stage of the investigation police had no evidence to suggest the attacker wanted to commit suicide, and may have intended to set off the bomb with "an electronic device." According to Botero, Rojas was known by his nickname "One-hand Kiko" for losing his left hand in a blast and was an intelligence chief in an ELN unit operating in the department of Arauca, on the border with Venezuela.

"This was an operation that has been planned for the past 10 months," Botero said, stating that the guerrilla group -- Colombia's last active rebel force -- were the "intellectual authors" of the attack.

The ELN has not responded to the allegations.

Attorney General Nestor Humberto said another suspect also connected to the ELN, named as Ricardo Carvajal, was arrested overnight in Bogota.

Soon after the attack authorities said they had identified the bomber, but added that he had no known links to armed guerrilla groups.

The General Francisco de Paula Santander Officer's School in the south of Bogota is thecountry's largest police academy and was hosting a graduation ceremony for cadets at the time of the attack.