MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Petro links FARC groups to bomb trap that killed 7

A former guerrilla fighter himself, Petro said he believed FARC groups were to blame for the attack

Colombian President Gustavo Petro said this weekend that it was very likely that dissident FARC groups were behind the bomb trap attack that killed 7 police officers last week.

Read also: Bomb trap kills 7 in Colombia

“It is highly probable that members of what they call today dissidents in some of the formations were responsible for the attack. It is this type of dissidents who have to answer for these facts,” Petro told a press conference after visiting the site of the attack.

The Colombian president said he believed there was a 90% probability that FARC guerrillas were behind the incident. “The investigation must now continue in the hands of the Attorney General's Office,” he added.

”Since yesterday we have held several meetings right here (department of Huila) trying to learn from the mistakes that have been made and the circumstances that the country is going through,“ he said.

Petro underlined these actions showed a non-compliance with the peace agreement. ”The population is upset in anxiety because it had built the illusion of definitive peace,“ he said. ”The more we talk about peace, the more we have to raise our guard, the more careful we have to be from the point of view of military actions.“

Regarding Chile's referendum, Petro said that if rejection won [former Dictator Augusto] ”Pinochet has revived.“

”Only if the democratic and social forces unite, it will be possible to leave behind a past that stains all of Latin America,” he added.