Small Wars Journal

Urban Terrorism Returns to Colombia

Tue, 06/27/2017 - 10:13am

Urban Terrorism Returns to Colombia by Mary Anastasia O’Grady, Wall Street Journal

A terrorist attack on June 17 in the upscale Bogotá, Colombia, shopping mall Centro Andino left three dead and nine injured, one critically. The bombing marks the return of urban terrorism to Colombia’s capital city even while the ink is barely dry on the “peace” settlement President Juan Manuel Santos signed in Havana last year with the narcoterrorist group FARC.

Mr. Santos immediately declared the perpetrators of the crime “enemies of peace.” Thank you, Captain Obvious. But Colombians are asking who did it, and the answers they’re getting are suspiciously murky.

That has given rise to rumors of a cover-up. Yet one thing is certain: Granting impunity for crimes against humanity, as Mr. Santos did for the FARC, has invited more terrorism.

Centro Andino is a national symbol of capitalism and has long been considered a possible terror target. Vehicles entering the parking garage are inspected by police and bomb-sniffing dogs. The areas in and around the mall are blanketed with surveillance cameras. Colombian forensic teams excel at terrorism investigations and count on U.S. technical support for anything they lack. Yet this investigation appears amateurish at best…

Mr. Santos warned Colombians last year that if the FARC isn’t appeased, it will return to urban warfare. Recently the attorney general said that the FARC’s wealth has been uncovered and will be confiscated to compensate its victims. Colombians could be forgiven for fearing that at Centro Andino the FARC responded…

Read on.