Explosion Near Colombia-Venezuela Border Injures Four Police Officers

BOGOTA, Colombia — A bomb detonated Tuesday near a bridge spanning Colombia’s border with Venezuela, injuring at least four police officers in the city of Cúcuta, according to officials.

Norte de Santander Governor William Villamizar announced on X that authorities were investigating the perpetrators of the attack.

The blast occurred in front of the local office of Colombia’s tax authority, adjacent to the Francisco de Paula de Santander International Bridge. Video footage of the scene revealed a truck and several motorcycles damaged by the explosion.

The incident follows the conservative government’s decision to revise its security strategy, adopting a tougher stance against gangs and rebel groups.

Upon taking office in August, President Abelardo de la Espriella terminated peace talks with the remaining rebel groups, asserting that four years of negotiations had produced limited results and that armed groups had used cease‑fires to consolidate control in rural regions.

Known as “the Tiger,” de la Espriella has revived joint task forces to safeguard oil pipelines and pledged to combat the cocaine trade by spraying coca fields with herbicides — a method suspended in 2015 due to health concerns.

Early Tuesday morning, de la Espriella oversaw a crackdown in Medellín that resulted in the arrest of 135 individuals suspected of drug trafficking and involvement in human‑trafficking rings. A video released from his office showed the president reprimanding some of the detained suspects.

“The party is over,” he warned the suspect, “you will soon feel the Tiger’s bite.”

Critics argue that de la Espriella is using law‑enforcement operations for propaganda and doubt that Colombia’s armed forces can disarm rebel groups through force alone, without eventually returning to negotiations.

In Cúcuta, near the Venezuelan border, police are investigating the murder of a former deputy mayor who was assassinated Monday night while traveling home. In September, a separate attack on a police station in the same city killed a civilian and wounded eleven others.

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