In a new incident of violence that occurred on Thursday, April 21, in the municipality of Colosó (Sucre), a civilian died along with a policeman, adding to the uniformed personnel who have been killed this month in the country.
According to the Caracol Radio station, the incident occurred when patrolman Fabian Elias Berrío checked the documentation of a vehicle that entered that population in the Colombian Caribbean. At that time, they attacked with firearms the uniformed man and the owner of the car, who was identified as Luis Alfonso Perna Álvarez. However, the patrolman's companion managed to save himself.
In the newspaper El Universal in Cartagena they reported that, according to unofficial accounts, the driver of the vehicle was left in the middle of the attack by the murderers of the patrol car.
This was why the governor of Sucre, Hector Olimpo, spoke out, who regretted what happened and assured that it was a retaliation of the drug trafficking groups that commit crimes in that department.
“The bandits, apparently, in retaliation for the beatings that have been inflicted on them carry out this action that seizes the department in mourning. Our solidarity always with the Colombian National Police, which does a great service to us and do not deserve these things to happen,” said the regional president.
It was precisely Colonel Carlos Correa Rodríguez, the police commander in that department in the north of the country, who supported the version of Governor Olimpo.
“It is in retaliation to the continuous operations, to captures, to seizures of hallucinogenic substances, weapons, in the face of the extradition of the same alias Otoniel, that at the country level some specific facts have occurred against the public force,” said the official.
After what happened, the governor of Sucre announced that 120 million pesos would be given to anyone who provided information to find those responsible. Of this category, 50 million were contributed by the governorate of the department, another 50 were given by the Police and the remaining 20 million by the mayor's office of Colosó.
“They're not going to push us back. We have the task of ensuring safety and coexistence conditions for the department. Despite the threats and intimidation they want to make to us, we will continue with the security forces in the fight against crime,” said the official.
This homicide occurred just hours after the murder of patrolman Francisco Javier Pacheco Orellano in the municipality of Zambrano, in the department of Bolívar.
The events that would have ended the officer's life occurred at kilometer 1 of the road that connects Carmen de Bolívar with the municipality of Zambrano. Precisely there he was approached by four subjects who were mobilizing on motorcycles carrying a rifle and pistol, who opened fire on the public forces, managing to hit the uniformed man five times.
Pacheco Orellano belonged to the Department's Department of Traffic and Transport. The first reports from the authorities point to the Gulf Clan as the group that would be behind this homicide.
In the same incident, deputy mayor Jaime Garavito was injured, who was hit by a bullet in the abdomen, and a civilian who was identified as José David de Ávila de Ávila de Ávila.
The Director General of the National Police, General Jorge Luis Vargas Valencia, said that “this homicide ordered by some criminals of the Gulf Clan who commit crimes in that area would allegedly come as a result of the operations carried out in recent days by the National Police with the National Navy against this structure”.
For this crime, it was also announced the delivery of a reward of 100 million pesos to those who provide information to find those responsible.
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