According to the Defense Ministry, 36 people were injured in a bomb attack on a military base in the Colombian border town of Cúcuta on Tuesday, three of them seriously.

Eyewitnesses reported two detonations on the premises of the 30th Army Brigade, which is located just outside the city.

Defense Minister Diego Molano confirmed Tuesday evening that it was a car bomb explosion.

How the vehicle made it onto the site is the subject of an investigation.

Tjerk Brühwiller

Correspondent for Latin America based in São Paulo.

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    So far nobody has admitted to the attack.

    The main suspicion of the authorities is directed against the "National Liberation Army" (ELN).

    The hypothesis that active cells of the former "Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia" (FARC) are still behind the attack is not excluded.

    The Marxist ELN has around 2,300 fighters and a large network of supporters.

    In contrast to the much larger FARC, it has not renounced armed struggle.

    The city of Cúcuta is on the border with Venezuela, in the Norte de Santander department.

    The military base is considered very important because of its location.

    In addition, US Army advisors are regularly stationed there.

    Various armed groups are active in the border region between Colombia and Venezuela, including the ELN and the FARC cells, paramilitary groups and other criminal organizations.

    Military base near coca-growing areas

    The region is known as one of the main growing areas for coca, which is used to make cocaine. The struggle for territorial control and control of drug trafficking and other illegal activities is the driving force behind an ongoing violent conflict in several regions of Colombia. Several groups are now also operating on Venezuelan territory. In the past few weeks there have been clashes further south between still active FARC cells and the Venezuelan army. 

    Although minor armed conflicts and a climate of violence prevailed in some regions of the country after the peace treaty between Colombia and the FARC in 2016, attacks in urban areas or on military facilities are rather rare. The last comparable attack occurred in 2019 when a car bomb explosion in a military academy in the capital Bogotá killed 20 people. In view of the gravity of the situation, President Iván Duque traveled to Cúcuta late Tuesday evening to meet with the top management of the security forces and the local and regional authorities and to personally examine the situation, as he announced on Twitter. 

    The attack hits Colombia at a difficult moment. The country has seen more than a month of large-scale protests, overshadowed by police violence and vandalism, in which a number of people were killed. Road blockades have cut communication routes in some regions. Although the negotiations between the government and the strike committee had so far borne little fruit, the protest organizers had promised a temporary cessation of the demonstrations a few hours before the attack. The reason is, among other things, the worsening corona situation in Colombia, where the number of cases has increased significantly in recent weeks - also demonstrably because of the mass demonstrations.