Last Wednesday, March 24, 2010 at 9:35a.m., a car bomb exploded in central Buenaventura, killing at least nine and wounding more than fifty. The site of the attack was located the Mayor’s office as well as the Public Prosecutor’s office. The car, abandoned the night before and detonated during a time of peak traffic congestion, was loaded with forty kilos of explosives. Fifty-six victims were initially admitted to the Departmental Hospital and to private clinics. Among the victims were judicial employees, police, street vendors and citizens who were on their way to conduct business at the Public Prosecutor’s office.
There are questions remaining as to whether drug trafficking parties or the FARC are responsible for the deadly attack, although President Uribe and other “authorities” are attributing the bombing to the FARC. A third theory postulates that the attack could have been the result of a continuing vendetta between the drug traffickers and the FARC.
The Colombia Support Network very strongly condemns the use of violence against the civil population, and calls on Colombian authorities to immediately launch an unbiased and thorough investigation into this attack, so that those responsible can be brought to justice.