LatinNews Daily Report - 24 May 2012

SECURITY | Man arrested in connection to Bogotá terrorist attacks. On 23 May Colombian security forces arrested Andrés Felipe Ríos Giraldo, an alleged member of the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Farc)’s Antonio Nariño Urban Network (Ruan), who is believed to have participated in the 15 May bomb attack on the former interior and justice minister Fernando Londoño Hoyos (2002-2004). Although President Juan Manuel Santos has stated on several occasions that there is no certainty as to the authors of the attack, Londoño yesterday claimed that the Farc were the material and intellectual authors and said that if President Santos was unable to combat the guerrilla, “we should find another [president]”. According to a Colombian daily, El País, intelligence reports hold that the attack was orchestrated by the head of the infamous Teófilo Forero Farc mobile column, ‘El Paisa’ (Hernán Darío Velásquez), and that the latter paid Col$2bn (US$1.07m) to hired assassins to carry out the attack. ‘El Paisa’ was part of the group of assassins that answered to the infamous narco-trafficker Pablo Escobar in the 1990s.

End of preview - This article contains approximately 562 words.

Subscribers: Log in now to read the full article

Not a Subscriber?

Choose from one of the following options

• Subscribe
• Sign up for a one-time, 14-day trial