A car bomb has been detonated at a police academy in Bogotá, killing at least five people and injuring 10, the Colombian capital’s mayor, Enrique Peñalosa, has said.

The scene outside the General Santander police academy was chaotic, with ambulances and helicopters rushing to the normally tightly controlled facility.

Witnesses said they heard a loud explosion that destroyed windows in adjacent buildings. Pictures on social media showed a charred vehicle surrounded by debris on the academy’s campus.

Authorities have not assigned blame for the attack, but leftist rebels from the National Liberation Army have been stepping up attacks on police targets in Colombia amid a standoff with conservative president Iván Duque over how to re-start stalled peace talks. </s> Forensic workers, behind top, work the scene of a deadly car bombing at the General Santander police academy in Bogota, Colombia, Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. (AP Photo/John Wilson Vizcaino)

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — A car bomb exploded at a heavily guarded police academy in Colombia’s capital on Thursday, killing 10 people and injuring dozens in an attack that recalled the bloodiest chapters of the country’s drug-fueled guerrilla conflict.

The scene outside the General Santander police academy in southern Bogota was chaotic in the aftermath of the midmorning attack, the biggest against a police or military facility in Bogota in years.

Videos circulating on social media show panicked officers hauling injured colleagues on stretchers with debris and body parts strewn in front of red tile-roofed cadet barracks. In the distance, the skeletal steel remains of the truck used in the attack can be seen still burning while approaching ambulances blare.

President Ivan Duque rushed back to the capital with his top military advisers from a visit to a western state to oversee the police investigation, which points to a possible suicide bombing – something unprecedented in decades of political violence in the Andean nation.

Chief Prosecutor Nestor Martinez said a 56-year-old man named Jose Aldemar Rojas, driving a 1993 Nissan pick-up loaded with 80 kilograms (175 pounds) of pentolite, carried out the attack. He said the car had its last official mechanical revision some six months ago in the eastern state of Arauca, along the border with Venezuela.

“This is an attack not only against the young, the security forces or the police. It’s an attack against society,” Duque said in a brief statement after surveying the blast scene. “This demented terrorist act will not go unpunished.”

The defense ministry said 10 people were killed and another 66 injured. Among the dead were a Panamanian and an Ecuadorian national.

Rafael Trujillo said he was delivering a care package to his son Gerson, who entered the school just two days ago, when he was stopped in his tracks by the blast that destroyed windows in apartment buildings as far as four blocks away.

“I’m sad and very worried because I don’t have any information about my son,” said Trujillo, standing outside the facility, where police officers had set up a taped perimeter as forensic specialists surveyed the blast site.

Authorities were at a loss to explain how the vehicle slipped through a gate permanently protected by explosive-sniffing dogs, heavily-armed guards and security cameras. But there were unconfirmed reports based on leaked recordings of phone conversations of officers on the scene that the driver rammed through the checkpoint on a kamikaze mission.

Health authorities in Bogota appealed for residents to donate blood at one of four collection points in the capital to help treat those injured, the majority of whom were rushed to a police hospital.

For decades, residents of Bogota lived in fear of being caught in a bombing by leftist rebels or Pablo Escobar’s Medellin drug cartel. But as Colombia’s conflict has wound down, security has improved and residents have lowered their guard.

While authorities had yet to suggest who was behind the attack, and no armed group claimed responsibility, attention was focused on leftist rebels from the National Liberation Army, which has been stepping up attacks on police targets in Colombia amid a standoff with the conservative Duque over how to re-start stalled peace talks.

The group known as the ELN was long considered a lesser military threat than the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, whose 7,000 guerrilla fighters disarmed as part of a 2016 peace accord.

But in the wake of the peace deal the Cuban-inspired insurgency has been gaining strength, especially along the eastern border with Venezuela, where it has carried out a number of kidnappings and bombings of oil pipelines. That has hardened Duque’s resolve in refusing to resume peace talks that have been stalled since he took office last August, despite a rebel offer of a cease-fire.

Other possible assailants include the country’s Usuga drug cartel, which has suffered a number of setbacks at the hands of the police, and dissident members of the FARC.

Several foreign leaders condemned the attack, as did the former commanders of the disbanded FARC.

The United Nations peace mission in Colombia called it “an unacceptable criminal act which goes against the efforts the country is making to steer away from the violence, and work … to build a more prosperous and peaceful future.”

An explosion at the upmarket Andino shopping mall in June 2017 killed three people, including a French woman, and injured another 11. Police later arrested several suspected members of a far-left urban guerrilla group called the People Revolutionary’s Movement for the bombing.

But it has been more than a decade since a police or military installation in the capital has suffered a major bombing. A blast at military university in 2006 left almost two dozen people injured.

Ariel Avila, an analyst who tracks violence, said that in the last four years, there have been 28 attacks in the capital with explosives. While the majority has been carried out with low-grade homemade materials and grenades that have damaged property but left no casualties, he said police intelligence and checkpoints surrounding the city need to be reinforced to prevent more attacks.

“We need to fortify the city again,” he told Blu Radio. </s> 10 dead in car bombing at police academy in Colombia capital

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — A car bomb exploded at a heavily guarded police academy in Colombia's capital on Thursday, killing 10 people and injuring dozens in an attack that recalled the bloodiest chapters of the country's drug-fueled guerrilla conflict.

The scene outside the General Santander police academy in southern Bogota was chaotic in the aftermath of the midmorning attack, the biggest against a police or military facility in Bogota in years.

Videos circulating on social media show panicked officers hauling injured colleagues on stretchers with debris and body parts strewn in front of red tile-roofed cadet barracks. In the distance, the skeletal steel remains of the truck used in the attack can be seen still burning while approaching ambulances blare.

President Ivan Duque rushed back to the capital with his top military advisers from a visit to a western state to oversee the police investigation, which points to a possible suicide bombing - something unprecedented in decades of political violence in the Andean nation.

Chief Prosecutor Nestor Martinez said a 56-year-old man named Jose Aldemar Rojas, driving a 1993 Nissan pick-up loaded with 80 kilograms (175 pounds) of pentolite, carried out the attack. He said the car had its last official mechanical revision some six months ago in the eastern state of Arauca, along the border with Venezuela.

"This is an attack not only against the young, the security forces or the police. It's an attack against society," Duque said in a brief statement after surveying the blast scene. "This demented terrorist act will not go unpunished."

The defense ministry said 10 people were killed and another 66 injured. Among the dead were a Panamanian and an Ecuadorian national.

Rafael Trujillo said he was delivering a care package to his son Gerson, who entered the school just two days ago, when he was stopped in his tracks by the blast that destroyed windows in apartment buildings as far as four blocks away.

"I'm sad and very worried because I don't have any information about my son," said Trujillo, standing outside the facility, where police officers had set up a taped perimeter as forensic specialists surveyed the blast site.

Authorities were at a loss to explain how the vehicle slipped through a gate permanently protected by explosive-sniffing dogs, heavily-armed guards and security cameras. But there were unconfirmed reports based on leaked recordings of phone conversations of officers on the scene that the driver rammed through the checkpoint on a kamikaze mission.

Health authorities in Bogota appealed for residents to donate blood at one of four collection points in the capital to help treat those injured, the majority of whom were rushed to a police hospital.

For decades, residents of Bogota lived in fear of being caught in a bombing by leftist rebels or Pablo Escobar's Medellin drug cartel. But as Colombia's conflict has wound down, security has improved and residents have lowered their guard.

While authorities had yet to suggest who was behind the attack, and no armed group claimed responsibility, attention was focused on leftist rebels from the National Liberation Army, which has been stepping up attacks on police targets in Colombia amid a standoff with the conservative Duque over how to re-start stalled peace talks.

The group known as the ELN was long considered a lesser military threat than the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, whose 7,000 guerrilla fighters disarmed as part of a 2016 peace accord.

But in the wake of the peace deal the Cuban-inspired insurgency has been gaining strength, especially along the eastern border with Venezuela, where it has carried out a number of kidnappings and bombings of oil pipelines. That has hardened Duque's resolve in refusing to resume peace talks that have been stalled since he took office last August, despite a rebel offer of a cease-fire.

Other possible assailants include the country's Usuga drug cartel, which has suffered a number of setbacks at the hands of the police, and dissident members of the FARC.

Several foreign leaders condemned the attack, as did the former commanders of the disbanded FARC.

The United Nations peace mission in Colombia called it "an unacceptable criminal act which goes against the efforts the country is making to steer away from the violence, and work ... to build a more prosperous and peaceful future."

An explosion at the upmarket Andino shopping mall in June 2017 killed three people, including a French woman, and injured another 11. Police later arrested several suspected members of a far-left urban guerrilla group called the People Revolutionary's Movement for the bombing.

But it has been more than a decade since a police or military installation in the capital has suffered a major bombing. A blast at military university in 2006 left almost two dozen people injured.

Ariel Avila, an analyst who tracks violence, said that in the last four years, there have been 28 attacks in the capital with explosives. While the majority has been carried out with low-grade homemade materials and grenades that have damaged property but left no casualties, he said police intelligence and checkpoints surrounding the city need to be reinforced to prevent more attacks.

"We need to fortify the city again," he told Blu Radio. </s> Colombian authorities are trying to work out who was responsible for a car bombing at a police academy in Bogota that left 21 dead.

Overnight, the death toll from the Thursday morning bombing more than doubled to 21, making it the deadliest attack in Colombia in over a decade.

It proved especially unsettling because the target, the General Santander school, is one of the most protected installations in the capital and indications it may have been the result of a suicide bombing — something unprecedented in decades of political violence in the South American nation.

President Ivan Duque, visiting the academy in the aftermath, was careful not to attribute blame to any armed group even while condemning what he called a “miserable” terrorist act that recalled some of the bloodiest chapters of Colombia’s recent past.

“The terrorists are looking to intimidate us as a society and attack the state,” Mr Duque said in a televised address in which he declared three days of mourning. “Colombia will demonstrate that it is a strong state, united and won’t break in the face of the dementia of these aggressions.” Family members of victims of a bombing gather outside the entrance to the General Santander police academy (John Wilson Vizcaino/AP)

Among those killed was a top-of-class female cadet from Ecuador, while two visiting students from Panama were among those injured

With the help of security cameras, authorities identified the suspected bomber as a 56-year-old man with no criminal record named Jose Aldemar Rojas. He died in the attack.

Chief Prosecutor Nestor Martinez said Rojas drove a 1993 Nissan pick-up loaded with 80 kilograms of explosives past a security checkpoint and on to the school’s leafy campus, where a start-of-the-year ceremony had just finished.

There were reports that when bomb-sniffing dogs detected the explosives the driver got nervous and floored the vehicle past the barrier and on to the campus, where it exploded moments later in front of a red tile-roofed dormitory for female cadets.

Little is known about Rojas. Records show he bought the car last year and had it inspected six months ago in the eastern city of Arauca, near the border with Venezuela.

The same volatile area is a stronghold of the National Liberation Army, or ELN, the country’s last remaining rebel group following a 2016 accord between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) that saw some 7,000 rebels disarm.

Investigators are reportedly looking into Rojas’ possible ties with the rebel group after reports that he was an explosives expert for an ELN cell who went by the alias Mocho Kiko.

The ELN has been stepping up its attacks on police targets and oil infrastructure amid a stand-off with the conservative Duque government over stalled peace talks.

A year ago, the group claimed responsibility for the bombing of a police station in the coastal city of Barranquilla that left five officers dead.

But until now the Cuban-inspired group, which is believed to have around 2,000 guerrilla fighters, has never been capable or much interested in carrying out such a high-profile act of violence.

Thursday’s attack was the deadliest since a 2003 car bombing against the elite Bogota social club El Nogal that left 36 dead, an incident that hardened Colombians’ resolve against the Farc.

Mr Duque has demanded the ELN cease all attacks and kidnappings as a condition for restarting the talks and has condemned Venezuela and Cuba for allegedly providing a safe haven for rebel leaders even as their troops continue to sow violence in Colombia. </s> The blast happened at 09:30 local time at the General Santander school, an academy for police cadets in the south of the city. Authorities said José Aldemar Rojas Rodríguez was the author of the attacks, but have yet to identify a motive.

Images on social media show a charred vehicle in front of the police academy, surrounded by debris. Witnesses said they heard a loud explosion, which destroyed windows in surrounding buildings. Ambulances and helicopters then rushed to the scene.

Local reports suggest that a grey pick-up truck laden with explosives, entered the school compound and when it was stopped by guards at a checkpoint, the driver accelerated, driving into a wall before detonating. The driver of the car is believed to be among the dead. Authorities confirmed that vehicle carried some 80 kilos of pentolite, an explosive often used in military implements and in the elaboration of improvised antipersonnel mines.

The death toll, reported by the defence ministry, currently stands at nine, and the Bogota health ministry said a further 54 people were injured. Among those injured are a Panamanian and an Ecuadorean national. The identities of those killed has not yet been released.

President Ivan Duque, who had been visiting a western state of Colombia at the time of what he said was a “miserable act of terrorism”, returned immediately to the capital. Arriving at the scene he held a minute of silence in honour of the victims of the attack. In a public address he said "This is an attack not only against our youth, or our police force. It is an attack against the whole of our society."

Other politicians took to Twitter to condemn the attacks and express solidarity with the police. One local councillor in Bogotá, Emel Rojas, tweeted that the whole city was in mourning over the “cowardly act”. The French ambassador to Colombia, Gautier Mignot, joined other diplomats condemning the attack. “My thoughts are with the victims and their families”, he wrote.

Authorities identified José Aldemar Rojas Rodríguez as the author of the attack, but have yet to confirm whether he carried out the attack independently or as part of an armed group. Attention initially focused on leftist rebels from the National Liberation Army (ELN), who have stepped up attacks on police in recent months as peace talks with Duque’s government have stalled. Last week the ELN rejected Mr Duque’s demands for a unilateral ceasefire before negotiations in Havana resume.

The blast recalls high-profile attacks aimed at killing police officers associated with the worst of Colombia’s long battle against leftist rebels and drug cartels. Since a peace agreement was signed in 2016 with the FARC, the then-largest rebel group, such attacks have become less frequent.

The last deadly bombing to hit the capital was in June 2017, when a bomb exploded in an upmarket shopping mall, killing three people, including a French woman. But it has been more than a decade since a police or military installation has been targeted by a major bombing. In 2006, a bomb at a military university left almost two dozen people injured.

Residents of Bogotá have been asked to donate blood at four points across the capital to help doctors treating the scores of wounded. </s> A one-armed explosives expert belonging to Colombia’s last remaining rebel group has been blamed for a car bombing against a police academy that left 21 people dead.

Defence Minister Guillermo Botero said the man who carried out Thursday’s attack, Jose Aldemar Rojas, was a member of the National Liberation Army, or ELN, and known by his alias Mocho Kiko.

Even though Rojas had no criminal record, intelligence reports and testimony in legal cases indicate Rojas lost his arm making explosives during a long career in the ELN rebel cell near the border with Venezuela, Chief Prosecutor Nestor Martinez said.

Overnight, the death toll from the Thursday morning bombing more than doubled to 21, making it the deadliest attack in Colombia in over a decade.

It proved especially unsettling because the target, the General Santander school, is one of the most protected installations in the capital and indications it may have been the result of a suicide bombing — something unprecedented in decades of political violence in the South American nation.

President Ivan Duque, visiting the academy in the aftermath, was careful not to attribute blame to any armed group even while condemning what he called a “miserable” terrorist act that recalled some of the bloodiest chapters of Colombia’s recent past.

“The terrorists are looking to intimidate us as a society and attack the state,” Mr Duque said in a televised address in which he declared three days of mourning. “Colombia will demonstrate that it is a strong state, united and won’t break in the face of the dementia of these aggressions.” Family members of victims of a bombing gather outside the entrance to the General Santander police academy (John Wilson Vizcaino/AP)

Among those killed was a top-of-class female cadet from Ecuador, while two visiting students from Panama were among those injured

With the help of security cameras, authorities identified the bomber as 56-year-old Rojas, who also died in the attack.

Mr Martinez said Rojas drove a 1993 Nissan pick-up loaded with 80 kilograms of explosives past a security checkpoint and on to the school’s leafy campus, where a start-of-the-year ceremony had just finished.

There were reports that when bomb-sniffing dogs detected the explosives the driver got nervous and floored the vehicle past the barrier and on to the campus, where it exploded moments later in front of a red tile-roofed dormitory for female cadets.

Little is known about Rojas. Records show he bought the car last year and had it inspected six months ago in the eastern city of Arauca, near the border with Venezuela.

The same volatile area is a stronghold of the National Liberation Army, or ELN, the country’s last remaining rebel group following a 2016 accord between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) that saw some 7,000 rebels disarm.

Investigators are reportedly looking into Rojas’ possible ties with the rebel group after reports that he was an explosives expert for an ELN cell who went by the alias Mocho Kiko.

The ELN has been stepping up its attacks on police targets and oil infrastructure amid a stand-off with the conservative Duque government over stalled peace talks.

A year ago, the group claimed responsibility for the bombing of a police station in the coastal city of Barranquilla that left five officers dead.

But until now the Cuban-inspired group, which is believed to have around 2,000 guerrilla fighters, has never been capable or much interested in carrying out such a high-profile act of violence.

Thursday’s attack was the deadliest since a 2003 car bombing against the elite Bogota social club El Nogal that left 36 dead, an incident that hardened Colombians’ resolve against the Farc.

Mr Duque has demanded the ELN cease all attacks and kidnappings as a condition for restarting the talks and has condemned Venezuela and Cuba for allegedly providing a safe haven for rebel leaders even as their troops continue to sow violence in Colombia. </s> BOGOTÁ, Colombia—The man accused of carrying out the bombing of a police academy that killed 20 people here was identified by Colombian authorities as a longtime member of a Marxist rebel group whose guerrilla fighters operate along the porous border with Venezuela.

The attack is likely to further complicate efforts to restart peace negotiations with the insurgent group, the National Liberation Army, or ELN, and heighten tensions with Venezuela, where Colombian officials say ELN commanders operate freely. </s> At least 21 people were killed and about 68 injured when a car bomb exploded inside a police training academy in Bogotá on Thursday in the deadliest attack in the Colombian capital in 16 years.

Public prosecutors said the bomber drove a pick-up truck packed with 80kg of explosives through checkpoints at the entrance to the academy. Video footage taken shortly afterwards showed the mangled wreckage of the vehicle surrounded by debris and bodies.

Most of the dead and injured were young police cadets, including some from neighbouring Ecuador and Panama.

President Iván Duque described the attack as “a despicable act that would not go unpunished” and named the bomber as José Rojas Rodríguez. Unconfirmed reports in local media said Mr Rojas, who died in the blast, had links to the country’s biggest guerrilla group, the National Liberation Army (ELN), which has been at war with the state since the 1960s.

The Marxist ELN and the previous government opened peace talks in 2017 but they made little progress and, after coming to power last year, Mr Duque suspended negotiations, saying he would only resume them if the ELN ceased all criminal activities.

That has not happened. The ELN has regularly bombed oil pipelines and kidnapped people. On Wednesday it claimed responsibility for an attack on a helicopter in the north of the country a week ago. It took the three crew members hostage and said it had confiscated “a significant sum of money [from the helicopter’s cargo] that will be used in the revolutionary fight”.

Mr Duque stopped short of blaming the ELN for Thursday’s attack and said the police and prosecutors would give further details on Friday.

Some Colombians suggested dissident members of the Farc – the country’s biggest and deadliest guerrilla group until it reached a peace deal with the state in 2016 – might be to blame. Others have pointed the finger at organised crime groups that control Colombia’s lucrative cocaine industry.

The Farc – now a political party with representation in Congress – condemned the bombing while urging the government to avoid “warlike hysteria” and “military solutions” as it sought to track down the culprits.

The attack was the deadliest in Bogotá since 2003, when the Farc killed 36 people in a bombing of a nightclub. Thursday’s attack was the first car bomb assault in the Colombian capital since 2006.

Although the country is still plagued by violence, despite the historic 2016 peace deal, attacks in the capital city are rare. Most of the country’s worst atrocities are confined to remote areas and are linked to drug trafficking and disputes among rival criminal gangs. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2019 </s> BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia’s ELN rebel group was responsible for the car bomb attack against a police academy that killed at least 21 and injured dozens, the government said on Friday, making it unlikely peace talks with the insurgent group can soon restart.

In Thursday’s attack, a car broke through checkpoints onto the grounds of the General Santander School in the capital Bogota before it detonated, shattering windows of apartments nearby. Defense Minister Guillermo Botero said the car was driven by ELN explosives expert Jose Aldemar Rojas.

“A terrorist act by the ELN took those lives,” he told reporters in Bogota. At least 20 police cadets died in the blast, as did Rojas.

The National Liberation Army (ELN) has not claimed responsibility or issued a public statement.

Made up of some 2,000 fighters and considered a terrorist organization by the United States and European Union, the ELN began peace talks with the government of former President Juan Manuel Santos in early 2017, but they have been put on hold by President Ivan Duque until the ELN frees its 17 hostages and stops attacks.

The car bombing - the worst in Colombia in almost 16 years - has heightened fears that a new wave of attacks could be launched in the Andean nation as a reaction to the right-wing president’s stance.

Duque, who took office in August, has pledged to toughen offensives against the group and drug-trafficking crime gangs that kill and kidnap civilians.

The government in November asked Cuba - where talks were taking place - to capture ELN rebel commander Nicolas Rodriguez and provide information about the presence of other ELN commanders in Cuban territory.

It also asked Havana to act on an Interpol Red Notice on Rodriguez. The Cuban government has not responded publicly to the request.

Duque called the explosion a “crazy terrorist act” against unarmed cadets. It is the worst car bomb attack since the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) detonated a vehicle in Bogota’s upmarket El Nogal social club in 2003, killing 36 and injuring more than 200.

“We will not rest until we capture and bring to justice the terrorists involved,” Duque said late Thursday. “I tell the criminals that social repudiation awaits them, the rejection of all Colombians and the international community.”

He is expected to provide details on the future of peace talks later on Friday.

The vehicle, a gray Nissan Patrol SUV, was carrying an estimated 80 kilograms (176 lb) of the high explosive pentolite, which has been used in the past by Colombian guerrillas, Attorney General Nestor Humberto Martinez said on Friday.

Botero said the car was registered in Rojas’ name and that he was identified by his finger prints. He said investigators believe Rojas did not intend to carry out a suicide attack, and that the bomb may have been activated by a cellular phone by someone else.

Rojas, known by his war alias El Mocho or Kiko, had lost a hand in bomb-making activity and travelled frequently across the border to Venezuela, Botero said.

The attack was planned over about 10 months, he said.

Car bombs were frequently used in Colombia during decades of civil war between the government and various leftist rebel groups, as well as in violence involving the Medellin cartel led by the late drug lord Pablo Escobar.

The worst of the war, which killed some 260,000 and left millions displaced, ended when the government reached a peace agreement with the FARC in 2016.

The last major attack was in January 2018 when the ELN, the biggest rebel group that remains active, detonated a bomb in the northern port city of Barranquilla, killing five police officers and injuring dozens.

The ELN, founded by radical Catholic priests, has fought more than a dozen governments since it formed in 1964.

Following intercepted telephone calls, ELN rebel Ricardo Andres Carvajal was captured overnight, Martinez also said.
A suicide car-bomb attack at the General Santander National Police Academy in Bogotá, Colombia, kills at least 20 people and injures more than 50 others.