---
title: "FARC dissidents responsible for bombing that killed two children, says Colombia's Duque"
description: "BOGOTA, March 28 (Reuters) - Colombian President Ivan Duque on Monday accused former members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) who reject a peace deal of setting off explosives at a police station which killed two children and injured 39 others in Bogota."
type: "NewsArticle"
publisher: "Daily Maverick"
site: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za"
section: "FARC bombing in Bogota"
author: "Reuters"
author_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/author/reuters/"
canonical_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2022-03-29-farc-dissidents-responsible-for-bombing-that-killed-two-children-says-colombias-duque/"
published: "2022-03-29T04:41:06"
updated: "2022-03-28T21:50:31"
lang: "en-ZA"
word_count: 225
---

# FARC dissidents responsible for bombing that killed two children, says Colombia's Duque

> BOGOTA, March 28 (Reuters) - Colombian President Ivan Duque on Monday accused former members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) who reject a peace deal of setting off explosives at a police station which killed two children and injured 39 others in Bogota.

By Reuters · Published 29 March 2022, 06:41 SAST · Updated 28 March 2022, 23:50 SAST

## Content

The Saturday night attack was the worst in the capital since another rebel group, the National Liberation Army (ELN), killed 22 police cadets with a car bomb in 2019.

"We are filled with sadness at the death of Ivanna Rangel, victim of cowardly terrorism by the FARC dissidents," Duque said on Twitter of the 5-year-old girl, who died early on Monday of her injuries. "We will not rest until we find those responsible for this atrocious attack."

A 12-year-old boy, Daniel Stiven Duque, also died of injuries sustained in the explosion in a working class neighborhood in the south of the city.

Preliminary investigations indicate the attack was ordered by dissident leader John Mechas, national police director General Jorge Luis Vargas said in a video. Mechas took responsibility last year for ordering both an attack against Duque's helicopter and a car bombing at a military base in the eastern city of Cucuta. [Read full story](https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL1N2QP2NW&linkedFromStory=true)

There are two groups of FARC dissidents who reject the 2016 accord with the government, which formally ended the rebels' participation in a 60-year internal conflict.

According to security sources, the groups, who fight the government as well as each other, count a total of 2,400 combatants and are involved in drug trafficking and illegal mining.

(Reporting by Luis Jaime Acosta in BogotaWriting by Julia Symmes CobbEditing by Matthew Lewis)