Thursday, January 12, 2023

Colombia VP Says Assassination Bid Foiled

By AFP Published on: January 10, 2023

In this file photo taken on October 7, 2022, Colombian Vice President Francia Marquez arrives at a Territorial Dialogue Forum in Guachene, department of Cauca, Colombia. (Photo by JOAQUIN SARMIENTO / AFP)

Marquez said that her security had carried out "the deactivation and destruction of a high-capacity explosive device" in the road leading to her family home in Colombia's southwest.

Her security team discovered the bag after being alerted to suspicious behaviour by "outside elements" on the road leading to the village of Yolombo in the Suarez municipality where Marquez was born.

Colombia Vice President Francia Marquez on Tuesday claimed her security detail had foiled an assassination attempt close to her home.

Marquez, the first black vice president in the South American country, said on Twitter that her security had carried out "the deactivation and destruction of a high-capacity explosive device" in the road leading to her family home in Colombia's southwest.

"It is another attempt on my life," added the 41-year-old, who survived an attack in 2019 linked to her work as an environmental activist in her home department of Cauca.

The latest bid, she said, involved "a plastic bag containing a high-powered explosive substance made of ammonium nitrate, powdered aluminium and... nails."

Her security team discovered the bag after being alerted to suspicious behaviour by "outside elements" on the road leading to the village of Yolombo in the Suarez municipality where Marquez was born.

She is part of Colombia's first-ever left-wing government, led by President Gustavo Petro.

He has attempted to end decades of armed conflict in the country by negotiating with left-wing rebels and armed groups such as drug traffickers.

In August, a few days after Petro was sworn in, a vehicle in the presidential motorcade came under gunfire in the northeast of the country.

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