San José attack: Sixth year of brutal event and verdicts still awaited

Sixth year in commemoration of the attack on San José police station, terrorist act attributed to the National Liberation Army, ELN, and there are still no convictions against the material and intellectual authors of this act, which left six police officers dead and more than forty injured.

At 6:40 am on the morning of that Saturday, January 27, 2018, an explosive device was detonated at the back of the police station, in the southeast of the Atlantic capital, an action that caused the death of Fredy De Jesús Echeverría Orozco, Yosimar Márquez Navarro, Fredy de Jesús López Gutiérrez, Anderson Cano Arteta, Yamith José Rada Muñoz and Willy Savier Renalhs; and left more than 40 injured, including residents of the sector.

According to authorities, the exploded device was activated by an electrical pulse apparently emitted by the radiotelephone seized from Cristian Bellón Galindo, one of three captured by the attempt. He was the first person to fall. At the time of his arrest, they found plans for other nearby police stations and calculations that allegedly reflected the effectiveness range of the explosives used to commit the attack.

Then Nilson Mier Vargas and Dalila María Duarte Martínez fell. He was also connected to Jefferson Torres Mina, a native of Valle del Cauca. According to authorities, this person would have helped Bellón coordinate the attacks. The suspect remains on the run.

Let’s not forget that the Than claimed responsibility for the attack and that within 24 hours afterwards a bomb exploded in the Soledad CAI 2,000in the Barranquilla metropolitan area.

Seven people were injured in this second attack. The terror fueled fear among the Atlantic population at the time, because, according to experts, nothing of that magnitude had ever been recorded. Today, after six years, the case begs for justice.