Antioquia to up local security following deadly FARC highway attack

Colombian authorities will reinforce security on the Medellin-Caribbean highway, where the FARC attacked on Wednesday, killing an Antioquian police commander, local media reported Friday.

Authorities reported plans to dispatch 120 members of the military to provide increased security in the area, following the double attack by the guerrilla organization’s 36th Front that occurred early Wednesday morning.  Two buses and a truck were burned, and a later explosion killed Antioquia Highway Police Commander Major Felix Antonio Jaimes.

The decision was made Thursday, following a departmental security council meeting held by Antioquia authorities in the Yarumal municipality, just south of the location of the incident incident, on the same roadway.

Antioquia Governor Luis Alfredo Ramos Botero also reiterated the local government’s offer of a $281,000 (COP 500 million) award for information leading to the capture of the FARC leaders who allegedly orchestrated the attack.

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