Colombian federal authorities announced Monday it will station 1,900 troops in the area south of Bogota after two local politicians were found murdered in a village 30 kilometers south of the capital.
The decision was announced after a special security meeting that followed the discovery of the corpses of the politicians on Sunday. The two councillors of Sumapaz, the rural area bordering Bogota in the south, had been shot dead.
According to newspaper El Espectador, the mayor of Sumapaz was moved to Bogota from where she will carry out her duties.
The authorities blame leftist rebels of the FARC for the double homicide. They investigate how the guerrillas were able to strike so closely to the Colombian capital and offer a 50 million peso reward for information leading to the arrest of the perpetrators of the murders.
10 town councillors have been murdered in Colombia this year and 400 have been killed over the last decade in Colombia. City and town councillors told Caracol Radio they are increasingly a target for guerrillas and emerging gangs across the country and that the State is failing to provide adequate security protection for them.
