Armed attack leaves 3 civilians and 2 police officers dead in southwestern Colombia

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – At least five people, three civilians, and two policemen, were killed in an armed attack against a patrol that was carrying out search and control work in the Colombian municipality of Santander de Quilichao, in the troubled department of Cauca (southwest), official sources reported Friday.

Defense Minister Diego Molano said that police patrolmen María Isabel Ángulo, 20, and Carlos Delgado Jiménez were attacked with rifle shots while they were in a neighborhood of Santander de Quilichao, the second most important city of Cauca after its capital, Popayán.

This “atrocious act also left three civilians dead and three more wounded, who are receiving medical assistance,” the minister stressed on his Twitter account.

For his part, the director of the Colombian Police, General Jorge Luis Vargas, detailed that the uniformed men were attacked by armed men who got out of a vehicle and “without a word fired at the patrol”.

He recalled that in that area of the country, there is a presence of FARC dissident guerrillas and explained that the authorities are offering a reward of up to 100 million pesos (about US$28,000) for information leading to the location of those responsible for the attack.

The Instituto de Estudios para el Desarrollo y la Paz (Indepaz) reported that the murdered civilians were Beatriz Elena Cano, 35 years old; Aleida Perafán, 54 years old; and Juan David Guegue, 21 years old and authority of a U’kawe’sx indigenous reservation in the area.

According to the organization, this is the 42nd massacre that has taken place in Colombia so far this year, with 158 victims.

On what happened today, the German ambassador to Colombia, Peter Ptassek, said on social networks that he condemned “these acts of violence, as we condemn all forms of violence, none of which leads to anything good and even less, to a better future”.