Colombia: 36 injured in car bomb attack on military base

A car bombing killed 36 people on Tuesday (June 15) at a military base in the city of Cucuta, in northeastern Colombia, according to the government, which attributed the attack to ELN guerrillas.

In announcing this record, the Minister of Defense, Diego Molano, condemned a

.

Three of the injured soldiers are in serious condition while two civilians among the victims are out of danger.

Colombian President Iván Duque went to the scene

.

Read also: Colombia sinks into serious social chaos

"The initial hypothesis of the investigation is that the ELN is at the origin of this senseless and despicable act"

perpetrated in this city on the border of Venezuela.

The ELN ("National Liberation Army") is considered the last active guerrilla war in the country since the 2016 peace agreement with the rebellion of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc).

According to a statement from the Ministry of Defense, at around 3 p.m. local time, two people in a white Toyota van infiltrated the base, posing as officials.

They then set off two explosions in the vehicle which affected the military unit.

Read also: In Colombia, the power taken aback in the face of the protests that take root

Cucuta is the capital of the department of Norte de Santander, where the National Liberation Army (ELN), the Pelusos, remnants of a demobilized Maoist insurgency, clash, as well as dissidents from the FARC and numerous drug trafficking gangs. . Armed groups are fighting for control of 41,000 hectares of coca leaves in the region, a major smuggling route to Venezuela and the Caribbean.

President Duque has buried talks with the ELN started by his predecessor and Nobel Peace Prize winner Juan Manuel Santos after the January 2019 car bomb attack on the Bogotá Police Academy, in which 22 cadets had been killed, in addition to the perpetrator of the attack. Operating since 1964 and numbering around 2,300 combatants, the ELN claims not to be linked to drug trafficking. Colombia is the world's largest producer of cocaine and the United States is the main consumer.