The guerrilla of the National Liberation Army (ELN) claimed responsibility on Friday the attack with explosives against a police patrol in Tibú, Norte de Santander, in northeastern Colombia, near the border with Venezuela, which left two police officers and a civilian dead, in addition to 10 injured.
“The most recent action takes place in the municipal capital of Tibú, Norte de Santander, where on May 24 units belonging to the war front activated mining to advance the passage of a National Police patrol that was mobilizing in a vehicle of the institution, leaving as a balance four police officers discharged and five more injured”, reads the document issued by the armed group.
The events occurred on Wednesday afternoon, when there was an explosive attack on a Police patrol that was heading towards an army military base in an urban area of the municipality.
“The ELN guerrillas continue to face offensive operations against territories in different regions of the country by the Colombian Armed Forces and their narco-paramilitary structures,” the ELN said in the letter.
After the attack, the Minister of Defense, Iván Velásquez, presided over a security council in Tibú, in which he maintained that “there is no justification for carrying out terrorist acts like this.”
“The Public Force will redouble its efforts and in a month we will review those figures again to compare with today’s current ones, which, in any case, and is a reality for all, are not satisfactory because crime has increased and in some aspects there has not been a significant result,” Velásquez said at the end of the security council.
After learning of the attack – in which the police officers Andrés Idárraga Orozco and the subintendent Angelo Raúl Martínez Arévalo, and a civilian who was identified as Lucy Castillo died – the authorities offered a reward of about 45,000 dollars for information leading to the arrest of the men who carried out the attack.
The municipality of Tibú is located in the convulsed region of Catatumbo, a geographical area bordering Venezuela, where there is a presence of FARC dissidents, paramilitary groups and the National Liberation Army, who dispute control of the crops of coca and drug traffickers.
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