BOGOTA – Colombian police on Wednesday arrested 14 suspects in connection with a pair of bombings in Bogota that left eight people wounded, President Juan Manuel Santos said.The suspects are affiliated with the ELN, the smaller of Colombia’s two main guerrilla groups, the president said on Twitter, congratulating police and the Attorney General’s Office on the arrests.
Operations “to find all those responsible for sowing terror in the capital” will continue, Santos said.
Eight people were hurt last Thursday when bombs went off at offices of the Porvenir pension fund in the heart of Bogota’s financial district and in an industrial area west of downtown.
Wednesday’s arrests took place in various parts of Bogota and a nearby suburb, the national police commander, Gen. Rodolfo Palomino, said in a statement.
One of those apprehended is a suspected ELN cell leader known as “El Profe” (The Prof), Palomino said.
El Profe, according to Deputy Attorney General Jorge Fernando Perdomo, “may have some employment connection with the National University.”
Authorities are also looking at the possibility that two of the other suspects are municipal employees, Perdomo told reporters.
The ELN mounted a dozen bombings in the capital a year ago to mark the rebel army’s 50th anniversary and the same group has been blamed for six of the seven bomb attacks reported in Bogota since then.
Colombia’s largest insurgency, the FARC, is in peace talks with the Santos government.
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