Explosion in Bogota kills two, injures official
- 12 years ago
ROUGH CUT - NO REPORTER NARRATION
STORY: In a rare attack in the Colombian capital Bogota, a bomb targeting a former interior minister on Tuesday killed his driver and a police officer, President Juan Manuel Santos said.
The Andean country has battled left-wing guerrillas, right-wing paramilitary groups and drug lords for decades, but a campaign since 2002 against cocaine traffickers and rebels coupled with the demobilization of paramilitaries has sharply reduced violence.
"We condemn this attack ... this government will not be thrown off course by these terrorist attacks. We will stay the course and carry out all the investigations needed to find the culprits," the center-right president said.
"This was an attack against former minister Fernando Londono. Unfortunately his driver and a police officer have died," Santos added, saying both the victims were accompanying the minister as part of a state protection program.
Londono was interior minister from 2002 to 2004 in the government of former President Alvaro Uribe, who led a crackdown on the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and other armed groups during his eight years in office.
Local television broadcast images of him walking from the scene of the bomb attack with blood covering his face, flanked by a bodyguard carrying a gun.
STORY: In a rare attack in the Colombian capital Bogota, a bomb targeting a former interior minister on Tuesday killed his driver and a police officer, President Juan Manuel Santos said.
The Andean country has battled left-wing guerrillas, right-wing paramilitary groups and drug lords for decades, but a campaign since 2002 against cocaine traffickers and rebels coupled with the demobilization of paramilitaries has sharply reduced violence.
"We condemn this attack ... this government will not be thrown off course by these terrorist attacks. We will stay the course and carry out all the investigations needed to find the culprits," the center-right president said.
"This was an attack against former minister Fernando Londono. Unfortunately his driver and a police officer have died," Santos added, saying both the victims were accompanying the minister as part of a state protection program.
Londono was interior minister from 2002 to 2004 in the government of former President Alvaro Uribe, who led a crackdown on the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and other armed groups during his eight years in office.
Local television broadcast images of him walking from the scene of the bomb attack with blood covering his face, flanked by a bodyguard carrying a gun.