Violence returned with a vengeance to Colombia today as scores of police officers lay dead on the pavement after terrorists threw a bomb into a group of waiting men. The events took place in the city of Barranquilla.
So far three people are reportedly killed and thirty wounded but from the first images reaching us from the scene, it is quite clear that this can only rise.
<blockquote class="twitter-video" data-lang="en-gb"><p lang="es" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Barranquilla?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Barranquilla</a> | Atención: video grabado momentos después del atentado contra la Estación de Policía San José. Simultáneamente delincuentes asaltaron vehículo de valores y hurtaron 2.000 millones de pesos. Hasta el momento van un policía fallecido y varios heridos. <a href="https://t.co/GRp9ysiySE">pic.twitter.com/GRp9ysiySE</a></p>— 360 RADIO COLOMBIA (@360RadioCo) <a href="https://twitter.com/360RadioCo/status/957255925315899393?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">27 January 2018</a></blockquote>
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At 6:40 am local time, two men on a motorcycle drove past a battalion of waiting police officers and threw a grenade into the group. Police have immediately started working on the theory that this was a cartel attack in revenge for multiple arrests made in the area earlier this week.
There was also a theory that the explosive device was thrown to distract from an ongoing robbery in the area, but local politicians said that only the drug cartels would dare to attack the police directly.
<blockquote class="twitter-video" data-lang="en-gb"><p lang="es" dir="ltr">Atentado terrorista en Barranquilla. Ahí tienen las consecuencias de una paz MAL HECHA, los criminales saben bien que con Santos a más crímenes más consiguen. Solidaridad con las familias de los afectados <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/DolorDePatria?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#DolorDePatria</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Barranquilla?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Barranquilla</a> <a href="https://t.co/KS7budqbSC">pic.twitter.com/KS7budqbSC</a></p>— Any (@anasil33) <a href="https://twitter.com/anasil33/status/957252572913590272?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">27 January 2018</a></blockquote>
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Mr Jorge Hernán Nieto, the Colombian chief of police had scheduled a trip to Medellín today, but canceled it and instead traveled to Barranquilla to take charge of the situation.
Colombia had been reasonably peaceful as of late ever since the FARC rebels accepted a peace deal with the government in 2016, an effort for which President Juan Manuel Santos received the Nobel Peace Prize.
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I'm not sure what the situation was leading up to this, but surely in such a violent country a large gathering of police would have been a little more aware of an approaching threat. I'm not trying to say it's their fault, it is an utterly cowardly act and the loss of lives is tragic. RIP to the fallen officers
Major Oops. Cartel leaders will gladly kill the responsible party.