Car Bomb Kills 4 in Colombia

By Jessalyn Mastrianni
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

CALI, Colombia – A car bomb near the Palace of Justice in Colombia’s third largest city of Cali killed four people (2 pedestrians, a vendor, and a driver) early Monday morning.  As many as twenty people were injured and many homes were damaged along with the Palace of Justice itself.

Authorities are still searching for information, having offered a large award of $55,000 for information leading to the suspects.  It is suspected that the bomb was the work of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in response to the several hits the guerilla group had taken over the summer.  This is the second car bomb in Colombia in the past month; the previous one killed seven people in northwester Colombia.

Urban violence is rare in the fight between the conservative Colombian government and the Marxist FARC group, and so these bombs are seen a as a possible heightened level of violence.  However, it is yet to be determined if FARC is actually responsible.

For more information, please see:

Reuters – Four killed in suspected Colombian rebel car bomb – 1 September 2008

AFP – Car bomb kills 4, wounds 12 in Colombia – 1 September 2008

NY Times World Briefing – Colombia: Car Bomb in Cali Kills 4 – 1 September 2008

CCTV – Car bomb kills 4 in Colombia’s Cali – 2 September 2008