Car bombing suspect was in guerrilla group
BOGOTÁ, Colombia — The suspect in a car bombing that left 21 people dead Thursday in the Colombian capital of Bogotá was a member of the largest guerrilla group remaining in the country, the Colombian government said Friday.
José Aldemar Rojas Rodríguez, the suspect who was also killed Thursday, was part of the National Liberation Army, a Marxist rebel group known as the ELN, said Guillermo Botero, the Colombian defense minister.
The ELN did not claim responsibility, but it has increased attacks against the government since its rival guerrilla group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, signed a peace deal with the government in 2016.
The attack Thursday, near a police academy, was the first car bombing in Bogotá in years, a gruesome reminder of an era when such attacks were the norm, as drug lords and rebel groups waged aggressive terror campaigns, killing hundreds of civilians and security forces. Since the signing of the peace accords, the Colombian government has said it turned the page on that violent era.
Call would be last resort
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will call Chinese President Xi Jinping only as a last resort if the Chinese government doesn’t release two detained Canadians, John McCallum, Canadian ambassador to China, said.
Canada will first use international pressure to resolve the matter, Mr. McCallum told reporters Friday after a closed-door meeting with lawmakers in Ottawa. Michael Kovrig, on leave from his foreign service job in Hong Kong to work for the International Crisis Group, and Michael Spavor, an entrepreneur who ran tours into North Korea, were detained Dec. 10, nine days after the arrest of Huawei Technologies Co. Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver on a U.S. request. She is now free on bail.
Mr. McCallum said there’s a global perception that the Canadians are being used as “bargaining chips.” Canada also wants clemency for a third citizen given a death sentence in China on drug charges.
Court to rule on challenge
KINSHASA, Congo — Congo’s constitutional court is poised to rule on a challenge to the presidential election, with the government on Friday dismissing an unprecedented request by the African Union continental body to delay releasing the final results because of “serious doubts” about the vote.
Upholding the official results could spark new violence in a country hoping for its first peaceful, democratic transfer of power since independence in 1960. At least 34 people have been killed since provisional results were released Jan. 10, the United Nations said.
The AU on Monday will send a delegation to Congo to address the crisis in the vast Central African nation rich in the minerals key to smartphones and electric cars around the world. Its neighbors are concerned that unrest could spill across borders.
The declared runner-up in the Dec. 30 election, Martin Fayulu, has requested a recount, alleging fraud.