At least eight Colombian police officers were murdered this Friday (2) in an ambush that took place in a rural area of the department of Huila, in the southwest of the country, as confirmed by President Gustavo Petro.
The attack, whose perpetrators were not identified, took place on the outskirts of San Luis, a village that is part of the rural area of Neiva, capital of Huíla.
According to the first information, the victims are two subintendents, two patrol officers and four auxiliaries.
“I strongly reject the explosives attack that killed eight police officers in San Luis, Huila. Solidarity with their families. These events express a clear sabotage of total peace. I asked the authorities to go to the territory to take over the investigation,” Petro wrote on his Twitter account.
Apparently, the police officers were returning to the police station they were attached to after a day of work at the Corregimiento de San Luis when a minefield was activated as the truck they were in was passing.
After the explosion, uniformed soldiers were attacked with bursts of rifle, according to information compiled by the local press.
This is the first attack against the security forces since Petro came to power, when the offensives against police and military were paralyzed through the so-called “pistol plan”, promoted mainly by the criminal gang Clã do Gulf.
A total of 36 police officers were killed as a result of the attacks of the largest criminal gang in the country that, after the extradition to the United States of their leader, Dairo Antonio Úsuga , aka Othniel, intensified the attacks against the security forces, mainly on the Atlantic coast and in the northwest of the country.
