Bomb tied to Donkey Explodes, killing soldier and wounding another 2 in Colombia

A soldier died and two were injured on Wednesday when a bomb that the guerrillas had joined a donkey exploded in northwest Colombia, said a local government official.

The attack in Valdivia in the department of Antioquia of Colombia was attributed to the National Liberation Army, known for its Spanish acronym Eln, with which the Government has suspended peace conversations As the South American country devastated by conflicts faces its worst violence in a decade.

The conversations froze in January, when the ELN was blamed for more than 100 deaths in raids near the border with Venezuela. The group has intensified their attacks against Colombia Security Forces since then.

The governor of Antioquia, Andrés Julian Rendon, announced the attack in an X position, saying that an officer was killed and two injured.

The attack was carried out using an “equine loaded with explosives” and sent towards a squad of soldiers, he said.

“This Government insists on talking about total peace and now with the history of urban peace,” Rendon said about X. “Avalant bandits that browse impunity.”

In a later position, Rendon identified the fallen soldier as Lieutenant Jhonatan Arbey Monsalve Moreno.

“I was serving the country with heroism when [ELN] The criminals attacked their unit, “Rendon said.

With the declared objective of achieving “total peace” after decades of conflict, leftist president Gustavo Petro assumed the position in 2022 and reopened peace conversations with a variety of armed groups.

Colombia has enjoyed almost a decade of relative peace since the signing of an agreement in 2016 led to the disarmament of its greatest rebel army, the FARC.

However, the country’s pockets are still controlled by the variety of left -wing guerrillas, right -wing paramilitar and drug cartels competing for the control of narcotics production, illegal mining and traffic routes. The United States has appointed FARC and ELN as foreign terrorist organizations.

During Petro’s mandate, observers say that armed groups financed by cocaine trade have only been strengthened.

In January, Dozens of people were killed In the Northeast of Colombia after failed attempts to hold peace conversations with the ELN. Later that month, the Colombian government announced a reward of $ 700,000 for information that led to the arrest and condemnation of four leaders of the rebel group.

News contributed to this report.

• Colombia
• Burst