Colombia VP says she was targeted with roadside bomb

[Eugene]

Also: Francia Márquez: Colombia VP says she escaped attempt to kill her (BBC)

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Source: Associated Press

Colombia VP says she was targeted with roadside bomb

By MANUEL RUEDA
January 10, 2023

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Colombia’s Vice President said on Tuesday that her security team found more than seven kilos of explosives buried next to a rural road that leads to her home in the southwestern province of Cauca. She described the incident as an assassination attempt.

Francia Marquez shared a police report on her Twitter account which says a drug-sniffing dog alerted to the bomb, which was made of ammonium nitrate, powdered aluminum and shrapnel, and that anti-explosives officers blew it up in a controlled explosion on Monday.

The vice president, who has previously faced death threats, described it as a new assassination attempt that won’t stop her advocacy for peace and equality.

Marquez is Colombia’s first Black vice president. She was elected last September along with President Gustavo Petro, an economist and former guerilla fighter, who is attempting to raise taxes on the wealthy, increase government spending and start peace talks with the nation’s remaining rebel groups.

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Read more: https://apnews.com/article/colombia-government-caribbean-gustavo-petro-assassinations-6886f8da53d75e20882846441011686f

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Source: BBC

Francia Márquez: Colombia VP says she escaped attempt to kill her

10 January 2023

Colombian Vice-President Francia Márquez says her protection officers have thwarted an attempt to kill her.

She said they had found an explosive weighing more than 7kg (15lb) near her family home in south-west Colombia.

Ms Márquez is Colombia's first black vice-president and serves in Colombia's first left-wing government, led by President Gustavo Petro.

She survived an assassination attempt in 2019 linked to her former work as an environmental activist.

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Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-64231154

[old as dirt]

1. Surez Gold - Afro-Colombian miners defending their heritage

Minority Rights Group International

A Minority Rights Group International production by acclaimed Colombian filmmaker Hollman Morris.

Afro-Colombians have been carrying out small-scale mining in Colombia's Cauca region since their ancestors settled there in 1637. Today their descendants continue to chip away at the red rock in search of gold, seeing it not only as a means for earning a modest living, but also as an activity deeply linked to their culture. Between 2002 and 2010, Colombia's government gave out 7,500 mining exploration titles to national and foreign companies eager to exploit the country's precious resources. In the film we hear of the Afro-Colombian community of La Toma's brave, and sometimes deadly, struggle to prevent the invasion of mining companies and defend their ancestral livelihoods at all costs.

The documentary was premiered in Madrid, Spain, on 9 December 2011. Visit www.minorityvoices.org for more information.

This film was funded by the European Union. This content is the sole responsibility of Minority Rights Group International and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the European Union

Mi Cauca

[Judi Lynn]

2. Assassination attempt on Colombia's vice-president foiled

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 11, 2023



Colombian President Gustavo Petro (right) and Vice-President Francia Marquez, join hands during a ceremony that certifies their election victory, in Bogota, Colombia, June 23, 2022

COLOMBIA’S vice-president said on Tuesday that her security team found more than 7kg of explosives buried next to a rural road that leads to her home in the south-western province of Cauca.

Francia Marquez posted on Twitter: “Members of my security team found a device with more than 7 kilos of explosive material on the road that leads to my family residence in the village of Yolombo, in Suarez, Cauca.”

Ms Marquez said a sniffer dog found the bomb, which was made of ammonium nitrate, powdered aluminium and shrapnel, and that anti-explosives officers blew it up in a controlled explosion on Monday.

The vice-president said considering the characteristics and location of the device there was “plenty of evidence that it was a new attempt against my life.”

More:
https://archive.ph/Sk6sZ#selection-433.0-445.156

Or:
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/w/assassination-attempt-on-colombia-vice-president-foiled