Two Colombian police officers died on Tuesday after being attacked with explosives while traveling on an avenue in Cali, the main city in the southwest of the country, official sources reported.
The police were patrolling on a motorcycle through the Mariano Ramos neighborhood in this city, the capital of Valle del Cauca department, to allegedly respond to an emergency when criminals activated the explosive charge, said Cali Mayor Alejandro Eder.
The victims were identified as Subintendents Jorge Leandro Gómez Ochoa, 36, with 15 years in the institution, and Rober Stiven Melo Londoño, 33, with 12 years of service with the Police.
The two police officers were able to be rescued and taken to one of the city's clinics, where they died minutes later, according to the Mayor's Office.
Shortly after, another device exploded in a nearby neighborhood, in an area known as La Escombrera, a few meters from a police post, with no victims.
The attacks were rejected by various politicians, including the centrist presidential candidate Sergio Fajardo, who held the Colombian government, led by President Gustavo Petro, responsible for the situation. «The government of total chaos is responsible for the terror and fear that are attacking Cali. No more chaos,» said Fajardo on X.
On August 21, an attack with a car bomb near the Marco Fidel Suárez Military Aviation School, Cali's air base, left seven dead and more than 70 injured. This attack was attributed to FARC dissidents.
In today's attacks, authorities are investigating whether they were carried out by FARC dissidents or by the National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrilla group, which began a 72-hour armed strike in the country on Sunday in protest against «imperialist intervention threats» and «the new phase of the neocolonial plan» of US President Donald Trump.
Since Sunday, the ELN has carried out several attacks on infrastructure and police in different departments of the country that have left fatal victims.
The most recent one was carried out early Tuesday on the Pan-American Highway, between Cali and Popayán, the capital of the neighboring department of Cauca, where heavily armed men stopped vehicles circulating in the area and set a truck on fire.
