</s>At least eight people were killed and another 10 wounded when a car bomb exploded Thursday at a police academy in the Colombian capital of Bogota, officials said.

The bomb went off in the General Santander Police School, said Mayor Enrique Penalosa. He said at least five people were killed but the Defense Ministry put the death toll at eight.

Authorities did not immediately say if the dead and wounded were police or civilians.

President Ivan Duque said he was returning to the capital from the west of the country, where he had been attending a security meeting.

“All Colombians reject terrorism and are united to confront it,” he said on Twitter.

Witnesses said they heard a loud blast that shattered windows in adjacent apartment buildings. Images on social media showed a burned vehicle surrounded by debris on the academy’s leafy campus.

There was no word on who might be behind the explosion, but attention was focused on leftist rebels from the National Liberation Army, which has been ramping up attacks on police targets in Colombia amid a standoff with the conservative Duque over how to re-start stalled peace talks.

The group known as the ELN was long considered a lesser military threat than the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, whose 7,000 guerrilla fighters disarmed as part of a 2016 peace accord.

But in the wake of the peace accord, the Cuban-inspired insurgency has been gaining strength, especially along the eastern border with Venezuela, where it has carried out several kidnappings and bombings of oil pipelines that have hardened Duque’s resolve in refusing to resume peace talks.

Colombia grappled for decades with a civil war and residents of Bogota lived in fear of being caught in a bombing by leftist rebels or Pablo Escobar’s Medellin drug cartel.

But as Colombia’s conflict has wound down, security has improved and attacks have become less frequent after a peace agreement with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia in 2016.

Thursday’s bombing was the deadliest in Bogota since an explosion at the upscale Andino shopping mall in June 2017 killed three people, including a French woman, and injured another 11.

Police later arrested several suspected members of a far-left guerrilla group called the People Revolutionary’s Movement.</s>A one-armed explosives expert belonging to Colombia’s last remaining rebel group has been blamed for a car bombing against a police academy that left 21 people dead.

Defence Minister Guillermo Botero said the man who carried out Thursday’s attack, Jose Aldemar Rojas, was a member of the National Liberation Army, or ELN, and known by his alias Mocho Kiko.

Even though Rojas had no criminal record, intelligence reports and testimony in legal cases indicate Rojas lost his arm making explosives during a long career in the ELN rebel cell near the border with Venezuela, Chief Prosecutor Nestor Martinez said.

Overnight, the death toll from the Thursday morning bombing more than doubled to 21, making it the deadliest attack in Colombia in over a decade.

It proved especially unsettling because the target, the General Santander school, is one of the most protected installations in the capital and indications it may have been the result of a suicide bombing — something unprecedented in decades of political violence in the South American nation.

President Ivan Duque, visiting the academy in the aftermath, was careful not to attribute blame to any armed group even while condemning what he called a “miserable” terrorist act that recalled some of the bloodiest chapters of Colombia’s recent past.

“The terrorists are looking to intimidate us as a society and attack the state,” Mr Duque said in a televised address in which he declared three days of mourning. “Colombia will demonstrate that it is a strong state, united and won’t break in the face of the dementia of these aggressions.” Family members of victims of a bombing gather outside the entrance to the General Santander police academy (John Wilson Vizcaino/AP)

Among those killed was a top-of-class female cadet from Ecuador, while two visiting students from Panama were among those injured

With the help of security cameras, authorities identified the bomber as 56-year-old Rojas, who also died in the attack.

Mr Martinez said Rojas drove a 1993 Nissan pick-up loaded with 80 kilograms of explosives past a security checkpoint and on to the school’s leafy campus, where a start-of-the-year ceremony had just finished.

There were reports that when bomb-sniffing dogs detected the explosives the driver got nervous and floored the vehicle past the barrier and on to the campus, where it exploded moments later in front of a red tile-roofed dormitory for female cadets.

Little is known about Rojas. Records show he bought the car last year and had it inspected six months ago in the eastern city of Arauca, near the border with Venezuela.

The same volatile area is a stronghold of the National Liberation Army, or ELN, the country’s last remaining rebel group following a 2016 accord between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) that saw some 7,000 rebels disarm.

Investigators are reportedly looking into Rojas’ possible ties with the rebel group after reports that he was an explosives expert for an ELN cell who went by the alias Mocho Kiko.

The ELN has been stepping up its attacks on police targets and oil infrastructure amid a stand-off with the conservative Duque government over stalled peace talks.

A year ago, the group claimed responsibility for the bombing of a police station in the coastal city of Barranquilla that left five officers dead.

But until now the Cuban-inspired group, which is believed to have around 2,000 guerrilla fighters, has never been capable or much interested in carrying out such a high-profile act of violence.

Thursday’s attack was the deadliest since a 2003 car bombing against the elite Bogota social club El Nogal that left 36 dead, an incident that hardened Colombians’ resolve against the Farc.

Mr Duque has demanded the ELN cease all attacks and kidnappings as a condition for restarting the talks and has condemned Venezuela and Cuba for allegedly providing a safe haven for rebel leaders even as their troops continue to sow violence in Colombia.</s>At least nine people were killed and more than 20 injured in a car bombing at a Colombian police academy in Bogota on Thursday, recalling the high-profile attacks associated with bloodiest chapters of the country's guerrilla and drug conflicts.

The scene outside the General Santander police academy in southern Bogota was chaotic in the immediate aftermath of the midmorning explosion, with ambulances and helicopters rushing to the normally tightly controlled facility.

Witnesses said they heard a loud blast that destroyed windows in adjacent apartment buildings several blocks away. Pictures on social media showed a charred vehicle surrounded by debris on the academy's leafy campus.

The police said at least nine people were killed and 22 injured. Among the dead were a Panamanian and an Ecuadorian national.

Rafael Trujillo said he was delivering a care package to his son Gerson, who entered the school just two days ago, when he was stopped in his tracks by the blast a block away from the school's heavily fortified main gate.

“I'm sad and very worried because I don't have any information about my son,” said Trujillo, standing outside the facility, where police officers had set up a taped perimeter.

President Ivan Duque said he and his top military commanders were rushing back to the capital from a visit to a western state to oversee police investigation into what he called a “miserable” attack.

“All of us Colombians reject terrorism and are united in confronting it,” Duque said in a tweet. “We won't bend in the face of violence.”

For decades, residents of Bogota lived in fear of being caught in a bombing by leftist rebels or Pablo Escobar's Medellin drug cartel. But as Colombia's conflict has wound down, security has improved and residents have lowered their guard.

While authorities had yet to suggest who was behind the attack, attention was focused on leftist rebels from the National Liberation Army, which has been stepping up attacks on police targets in Colombia amid a standoff with the conservative Duque over how to re-start stalled peace talks.

The group known as the ELN was long considered a lesser military threat than the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, whose 7,000 guerrilla fighters disarmed as part of a 2016 peace accord.

But in the wake of the peace deal the Cuban-inspired insurgency has been gaining strength, especially along the eastern border with Venezuela, where it has carried out a number of kidnappings and bombings of oil pipelines. That has hardened Duque's resolve in refusing to resume peace talks that have been stalled since he took office last August, despite a rebel offer of a cease-fire.

Thursday's bombing was the deadliest in the capital since an explosion at the upmarket Andino shopping mall in June 2017 killed three people, including a French woman, and injured another 11. Police later arrested several suspected members of a far-left urban guerrilla group called the People Revolutionary's Movement for the bombing.

But it has been more than a decade since a police or military installation in the capital has suffered a major bombing. A blast at military university in 2006 left almost two dozen people injured.

Ariel Avila, an analyst who tracks violence, said that in the last four years, there have been 28 attacks in the capital with explosives. While the majority has been carried out with low-grade homemade materials and grenades that have damaged property but left no casualties, he said police intelligence and checkpoints surrounding the city need to be reinforced to prevent more attacks.

“We need to fortify the city again,” he told Blu Radio.</s>Colombia's ELN rebel group was responsible for the car bomb attack against a police academy that killed at least 21 and injured dozens, the government said on Friday, making it unlikely that peace talks with the armed group can restart any time soon.

In Thursday's attack, a vehicle driven by ELN explosives expert Jose Aldemar Rojas broke through checkpoints onto the grounds of the General Santander School before it detonated, shattering windows of apartments nearby, Defence Minister Guillermo Botero said.

"A terrorist act by the ELN took those lives," he told reporters in Bogota.

The National Liberation Army (ELN), made up of some 2,000 fighters and considered a terrorist organisation by the United States and European Union, began peace talks with the government of former President Juan Manuel Santos in early 2017, but they have been put on hold. Right-wing President Ivan Duque has demanded the ELN free its 17 hostages and stops attacks before new talks can begin. The ELN has dismissed the conditions as unacceptable.

The bombing heightens fears that a new wave of attacks could be launched in the Andean nation as a reaction to the right-wing president's stance.

Duque, who took office in August and is supported by hard-line former President Alvaro Uribe, has pledged to toughen offensives against the group and drug-trafficking crime gangs that continue to kill and kidnap civilians.

The government in November asked Cuba - where talks were taking place - to capture ELN rebel commander Nicolas Rodriguez and provide information about the presence of other ELN commanders in Cuban territory.

It also asked Havana to act on an Interpol Red Notice on Rodriguez.

Rojas, known by his war alias El Mocho or Kiko, had lost his hand in bomb-making activity and travelled frequently across the border to Venezuela, Botero said.

The attack was planned over about 10 months and Rojas was killed in the blast, he said.

"We will not rest until we capture and bring to justice the terrorists involved," Duque said late on Thursday. "I tell the criminals that social repudiation awaits them, the rejection of all Colombians and the international community."

The vehicle, a grey Nissan Patrol 4X4, was carrying an estimated 80kg of the highly explosive pentolite, which has been used in the past by Colombian rebels, Attorney General Nestor Humberto Martinez said on Friday.

Car bombs were frequently used in Colombia during decades of civil war between the government and various leftist rebel groups, as well as in violence involving the Medellin drug cartel led by the late drug lord Pablo Escobar.

The worst of the war, which killed some 260,000 and left millions displaced, ended when the government of Juan Manuel Santos reached a peace agreement with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in 2016.

The last major attack was in January 2018 when the ELN, the biggest rebel group that remains active, detonated a bomb in the northern port city of Barranquilla, killing five police officers and injuring dozens.

The ELN was established in 1964 by Catholic priests to fight for land rights and the protection of poor rural communities.</s>The Colombian government on Friday blamed leftist ELN rebels for the car bomb that killed 21 people at a Bogota police cadet training academy.

Defense Minister Guillermo Botero, speaking from the presidential palace, described the Thursday bombing as “a terrorist attack committed by the ELN.”

Peace talks with the National Liberation Army, Colombia’s last major rebel group, broke down in 2018 under the former president Juan Manuel Santos.</s>BOGOTÁ, Colombia—The man accused of carrying out the bombing of a police academy that killed 20 people here was identified by Colombian authorities as a longtime member of a Marxist rebel group whose guerrilla fighters operate along the porous border with Venezuela.

The attack is likely to further complicate efforts to restart peace negotiations with the insurgent group, the National Liberation Army, or ELN, and heighten tensions with Venezuela, where Colombian officials say ELN commanders operate freely.</s>BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia’s ELN rebel group was responsible for the car bomb attack against a police academy that killed at least 21 and injured dozens, the government said on Friday, making it unlikely peace talks with the insurgent group can soon restart.

In Thursday’s attack, a car broke through checkpoints onto the grounds of the General Santander School in the capital Bogota before it detonated, shattering windows of apartments nearby. Defense Minister Guillermo Botero said the car was driven by ELN explosives expert Jose Aldemar Rojas.

“A terrorist act by the ELN took those lives,” he told reporters in Bogota. At least 20 police cadets died in the blast, as did Rojas.

The National Liberation Army (ELN) has not claimed responsibility or issued a public statement.

Made up of some 2,000 fighters and considered a terrorist organization by the United States and European Union, the ELN began peace talks with the government of former President Juan Manuel Santos in early 2017, but they have been put on hold by President Ivan Duque until the ELN frees its 17 hostages and stops attacks.

The car bombing - the worst in Colombia in almost 16 years - has heightened fears that a new wave of attacks could be launched in the Andean nation as a reaction to the right-wing president’s stance.

Duque, who took office in August, has pledged to toughen offensives against the group and drug-trafficking crime gangs that kill and kidnap civilians.

The government in November asked Cuba - where talks were taking place - to capture ELN rebel commander Nicolas Rodriguez and provide information about the presence of other ELN commanders in Cuban territory.

It also asked Havana to act on an Interpol Red Notice on Rodriguez. The Cuban government has not responded publicly to the request.

Duque called the explosion a “crazy terrorist act” against unarmed cadets. It is the worst car bomb attack since the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) detonated a vehicle in Bogota’s upmarket El Nogal social club in 2003, killing 36 and injuring more than 200.

“We will not rest until we capture and bring to justice the terrorists involved,” Duque said late Thursday. “I tell the criminals that social repudiation awaits them, the rejection of all Colombians and the international community.”

He is expected to provide details on the future of peace talks later on Friday.

The vehicle, a gray Nissan Patrol SUV, was carrying an estimated 80 kilograms (176 lb) of the high explosive pentolite, which has been used in the past by Colombian guerrillas, Attorney General Nestor Humberto Martinez said on Friday.

Botero said the car was registered in Rojas’ name and that he was identified by his finger prints. He said investigators believe Rojas did not intend to carry out a suicide attack, and that the bomb may have been activated by a cellular phone by someone else.

Rojas, known by his war alias El Mocho or Kiko, had lost a hand in bomb-making activity and travelled frequently across the border to Venezuela, Botero said.

The attack was planned over about 10 months, he said.

Car bombs were frequently used in Colombia during decades of civil war between the government and various leftist rebel groups, as well as in violence involving the Medellin cartel led by the late drug lord Pablo Escobar.

The worst of the war, which killed some 260,000 and left millions displaced, ended when the government reached a peace agreement with the FARC in 2016.

The last major attack was in January 2018 when the ELN, the biggest rebel group that remains active, detonated a bomb in the northern port city of Barranquilla, killing five police officers and injuring dozens.

The ELN, founded by radical Catholic priests, has fought more than a dozen governments since it formed in 1964.

Following intercepted telephone calls, ELN rebel Ricardo Andres Carvajal was captured overnight, Martinez also said.</s>Even before the attack, Mr. Duque, whose right-wing Democratic Center party campaigned against the peace deal with the FARC, expressed little enthusiasm for negotiating with the ELN.

Image A vigil outside the police academy. The attack on Thursday was the first car bombing in Bogotá in years. Credit Leonardo Munoz/EPA, via Shutterstock

“If the ELN really wants peace,” he said on Friday, “they need to show the country concrete actions, like the immediate return of all kidnapped people and the end of all criminal actions.”

Mr. Botero, the defense minister, said the attacker, Mr. Rojas, had joined the ELN in the 1990s and worked as an explosives instructor. He lost a hand at one point in an explosion and thereafter was known by the nickname “Mocho,” slang in Colombia for someone who is missing a hand or arm.

In 2015, as the FARC was nearing its peace deal with the government, Mr. Rojas had tried three times to pass himself off as a member of that group to receive demobilization benefits, but FARC members rejected him repeatedly, said Mr. Botero, the defense minister.

The FARC, which has given up arms and formed a political party, worked to distance itself from the attack this week.

“We express our solidarity with the victims and their families,” the party wrote in a statement after the attack. “And we call on all sectors of the country to keep building a pact that takes violence and weapons out of doing politics.”</s>Colombian authorities are trying to work out who was responsible for a car bombing at a police academy in Bogota that left 21 dead.

Overnight, the death toll from the Thursday morning bombing more than doubled to 21, making it the deadliest attack in Colombia in over a decade.

It proved especially unsettling because the target, the General Santander school, is one of the most protected installations in the capital and indications it may have been the result of a suicide bombing — something unprecedented in decades of political violence in the South American nation.

President Ivan Duque, visiting the academy in the aftermath, was careful not to attribute blame to any armed group even while condemning what he called a “miserable” terrorist act that recalled some of the bloodiest chapters of Colombia’s recent past.

“The terrorists are looking to intimidate us as a society and attack the state,” Mr Duque said in a televised address in which he declared three days of mourning. “Colombia will demonstrate that it is a strong state, united and won’t break in the face of the dementia of these aggressions.” Family members of victims of a bombing gather outside the entrance to the General Santander police academy (John Wilson Vizcaino/AP)

Among those killed was a top-of-class female cadet from Ecuador, while two visiting students from Panama were among those injured

With the help of security cameras, authorities identified the suspected bomber as a 56-year-old man with no criminal record named Jose Aldemar Rojas. He died in the attack.

Chief Prosecutor Nestor Martinez said Rojas drove a 1993 Nissan pick-up loaded with 80 kilograms of explosives past a security checkpoint and on to the school’s leafy campus, where a start-of-the-year ceremony had just finished.

There were reports that when bomb-sniffing dogs detected the explosives the driver got nervous and floored the vehicle past the barrier and on to the campus, where it exploded moments later in front of a red tile-roofed dormitory for female cadets.

Little is known about Rojas. Records show he bought the car last year and had it inspected six months ago in the eastern city of Arauca, near the border with Venezuela.

The same volatile area is a stronghold of the National Liberation Army, or ELN, the country’s last remaining rebel group following a 2016 accord between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) that saw some 7,000 rebels disarm.

Investigators are reportedly looking into Rojas’ possible ties with the rebel group after reports that he was an explosives expert for an ELN cell who went by the alias Mocho Kiko.

The ELN has been stepping up its attacks on police targets and oil infrastructure amid a stand-off with the conservative Duque government over stalled peace talks.

A year ago, the group claimed responsibility for the bombing of a police station in the coastal city of Barranquilla that left five officers dead.

But until now the Cuban-inspired group, which is believed to have around 2,000 guerrilla fighters, has never been capable or much interested in carrying out such a high-profile act of violence.

Thursday’s attack was the deadliest since a 2003 car bombing against the elite Bogota social club El Nogal that left 36 dead, an incident that hardened Colombians’ resolve against the Farc.

Mr Duque has demanded the ELN cease all attacks and kidnappings as a condition for restarting the talks and has condemned Venezuela and Cuba for allegedly providing a safe haven for rebel leaders even as their troops continue to sow violence in Colombia.
Colombian President Iván Duque Márquez unilaterally blames the National Liberation Army for the 2019 Bogotá car bombing, and suspends ongoing peace talks with the group, requesting that the Cuban government arrest the ten guerrilla group members leading the negotiations in Havana.