Colombian rebel group the ELN claimed Monday that the “extreme right” is to blame for last Tuesday´s bombing in Bogota that targeted former minister Fernando Londoño and killed two people while injuring dozens more.
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.”
On May 17, Londoño accused the FARC of fastening the explosive device to his armored car using magnets or another adhesive material, a method never before seen in Colombia. “It pains me that the FARC put to use this new technique of terror,” said the former Interior Minister under ex-president Alvaro Uribe.
The ELN’s statement went on to say that the attack was further proof that “it does not bother the far right to fight against their associates in power, when it comes to forwarding their interests, they will sacrifice their own.”
The statement is in reference to right-wing paramilitary group’s infiltration into Colombian political life. Hundreds of politicans have been accused of receiving political and financial backing from paramilitaries while dozens more have been arrested.
The rebel group also noted Uribe has called “a lot of attention” to notions that the FARC were responsible for the attack, while sitting President Juan Manuel Santos has yet to point a finger. Uribe has been accused by extradited AUC leader Salvatore Mancuso of accepting funds from the paramilitary group to finance his 2006 reelection.
“Generating these types of facts to intensify the environment when political events do not fit into blind schemes (…) is not something new, it is not the first time that it has happened, nor will it be the last,” the ELN’s statement said.
According to sources, Londoño, who was discharged from the hospital Friday night after spending five days recovering from a lacerated lung and ruptured eardrum, will soon return to hosting his daily news and opinion radio show, “The Hour of Truth.”