Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos on Saturday expressed his neighboring Venezuela where an explosion in the country’s biggest oil refinery killed at least 26 and injured at least 80 others.
“I am sending a message of solidarity … to President [Hugo] Chavez and the entire Venezuelan people, in the name of all Colombians … Whatever aid we could give, if necessary, we are more than willing,” Santos said at a public meeting in the central Colombian town of Honda.
The blast at the Amuay refinary, one of the largest in the world, took place Saturday morning little after 1AM. According to venezuelan authorities, the majority of fatal victims were members of the National Guard, Venezuela’s national police, stationed at a post next to the refinery.