seven police officers killed in an attack, the most serious since the investiture of Gustavo Petro

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seven police officers killed in an attack the most serious

Seven police officers were killed Friday, September 2 in an attack in San Luis, in the department of Huila, in the south-west of the country. The police were killed in an “explosive attack”, announced President Gustavo Petro, who wants to implement since his recent taking office a policy of “total peace”.

The head of state initially announced eight victims, but the police’s final toll was revised to seven dead. According to the police spokeswoman, explosives were used and the officers were killed by “gun fire”. According to the local press, the injured police officers were finished off by their attackers.

The authorities have not yet provided any information on the perpetrators of these acts. According to the prosecutor’s office, the police were returning to their barracks in San Luis, located in a rural area and difficult to access, when they fell into an “ambush”. The authorities also report that several dissident groups from the former FARC guerrillas operate in this region.

This is the first big security hitch since theinauguration of the new president, Gustavo Petro, early August. Saying he wanted to break with the old doctrine of the “internal enemy”, the first left-wing president in the country’s history replaced on August 12 the entire military command, including the policeemphasizing that its mission would now be “the reduction of violence, crime, and a substantial increase in respect for human rights and public freedoms”.

Noting also the failure of the anti-drug policy pursued by his predecessors, Gustavo Petro announced on August 24 a new approach to the fight against narcotics trafficking. He said he wanted to enter into negotiations with the ELN guerrillas – the arrest warrants against the negotiators of this guerrilla have been suspended– and with the many groups of drug traffickers and paramilitaries that operate in the country.

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Gustavo Petro thus offered “legal advantages” to members of the Clan del Golfo, the most powerful criminal gang in the country, in exchange for their surrender.

“These events express a clear sabotage of total peace”, declared the president who went to Neiva, capital of the department of Huila, to meet the political and security authorities there, after the announcement of the attack.



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