Countries and country unions around the world joined together Friday to condemn this week’s terrorist attacks by Colombian rebel group FARC which have killed 18 people and injured more than 100.
The European Union released a statement saying the FARC had to “choose between contributing to peace or falling into criminality,” following a series of fatal attacks on Wednesday and Thursday.
The leftist guerrilla group has acknowledged responsibility for one of the attacks, a bombing outside a police station in the Pacific town of Tumaco, but the government is blaming it for all four.
The Secretary General of the Organization of American States said, “These crimes represent an attack against the Colombian state and a despicable crime against the population, which deserve[s] a categorical rejection from the international community standing together.”
Mexican president Felipe Calderon reiterated this rejection of “cruel and inexcusable actions which are an attack on Colombian efforts to secure a future of peace and security.” Calderon expressed his country’s “solidarity with the families of the dead, with the Colombian people and with the government of President Juan Manuel Santos.”
A spokesperson for the French government said it sent “the strongest condemnation of these terrorist acts.”
The G24, a group of 24 developing countries around the world, echoed these sentiments and added ‘their deepest condolences for all the victims” and their “solidarity with the Colombian people.”
The United Nations condemned the acts earlier Friday as clear violations of international humanitarian law.