National army commander General Sergio Mantilla said there is “some evidence” that the FARC is responsible for the May 15 bombing in Bogota that targeted former minister Fernando Londoño and left two people dead and dozens more injured.
In an interview with W Radio, the General stated that “the evidence points to the FARC, to the Teofilo Forero [column].”
Authorities intercepted two FARC phone calls that referenced the attack shortly after the bombing.
Londoño blamed the leftist group May 17 for the bombing that killed his bodyguard and driver.
“It pains me that the FARC put to use this new technique of terror(…) They left no one the opportunity for defense,” he said referring to the perpatrators use of an explosive device that authorities suspect was fastened to the politician’s armored car using magnets or another adhesive material, a method unseen in Colombia before.
The radio show host and former minister was the target of FARC threats in the past. Files extracted from the guerrilla group’s computers referenced the method of attack, known as a “sticky bomb,” used in northern Bogota on May 15.
Colombian guerrilla organization the ELN blamed the “extreme right” for the fatal bombing Monday. In a statement released on its website, the insurgent group said that this attack did not “cause surprise and makes the implementation efforts of the extreme right’s fighting strategy rather clear.”
President Juan Manuel Santos has yet to place the blame for the attack squarely on anyone’s shoulders.
“Research continues. There are different hypotheses, but we cannot conclude on that particular case,” he said Friday.
