Marxist Terrorists Blamed for Worst Bogota Bloodbath in 16 Years

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-01-18/colombia-blames-marxist-eln-rebels-for-car-bomb-that-killed-21?srnd=markets-vp

Colombia’s government blamed the National Liberation Army, or ELN, for a car bomb attack on a police academy that killed 21 in the deadliest terror attack in Bogota in more than a decade.

Urban militias from the Marxist rebel group spent more than 10 months planning the attack, which also injured 68 and damaged nearly 600 buildings, according to authorities. An ELN member who had lost a hand working with explosives drove a 1993 Nissan SUV loaded with 80 kilos of pentolite explosive detonated at the General Santander academy in the south of the city on the morning of Jan. 17.

Colombia’s homicide rate rose last year, breaking a long downward trend, as illegal groups fought for control of territory and cocaine production. The nation’s biggest guerrilla group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, handed in its weapons following a 2016 peace deal, but the smaller ELN and other drug-trafficking groups swiftly moved to occupy the areas it had abandoned.