Colombian authorities have identified two men they say were the authors of a vicious bus attack that killed six people, including two children, in the southern Colombian Nariño department.
A release on the Colombia National Police website Tuesday said the two men are leaders of the FARC’s Mariscal Sucre Column, and that a reward of COP500 million (US$250,000) is being offered for the capture of the two “masterminds” of the attacks.
The two men are identified as Edgar Antonio Rodriguez, aka “Carraspo” and Martial Nastacuas, known by the alias “Macarena.” The police said the two orchestrated the “bloody and savage attack” on an inter-municipal transport bus in Ricaurte, Narino on Nov. 20.
The release said the two men also tried to ambush a police patrol two days before the attack using an improvised explosive device along the road. The guerrillas tried to use a “decoy strategy” to lure the patrol into the trap, but it failed.
“Since they could not accomplish this, the terrorists of Column Marshal Antonio José de Sucre, under the command of Antonio Villavicencio, alias Villavo and Lucumi Carabalí Raul, aka Albert, decided to lash out indiscriminately against civilians,” the report said.
The government is reporting the attack to the UN and International Red Cross as an act that violates the most elementary principles of international humanitarian law.
The Organization of American States (OAS) also immediately condemned the attack.
Another reward of 100 million pesos ($50,000) is offered for information leading to the captures of the foot soldiers who carried out the brutal attack.