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Colombian soldiers conduct a patrol across a field in a mountainous area in Miranda, Cauca department, Colombia, on Jan. 18. (Luis Robayo/AFP/Getty Images)
Suspected FARC rebels killed one police officer in an attack on a radar station in Colombia’s Cauca Department, located in the country’s south, according to reports.
Saturday’s attack by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, on the radar station prompted flight delays at Cali airport, which uses the radar station, according to Colombia Reports. It was guarded by 18 police officers, three of whom were injured in addition to the one fatality.
The radar is expected to take months to fix.”The solution we are considering to ensure the safety of flights is to space out their frequency. We don’t know if the number of flights will have to be reduced, but there will be delays,” civil aviation head Santiago Castro told the BBC.
The radar, according to Reuters, sends signals in a 186-mile radius and not only services the airport, but also aids authorities in the fight against drugs in the country.
“When a group like the FARC attacks sites that cause problems for the civilian population, it’s a demonstration of its weakness and desperation because it’s affecting the civilian population that it claims to be its base of support,” President Juan Manuel Santos said, according to Reuters.
FARC has been significantly weakened in recent years after Colombia’s military killed top leaders and cut off cocaine output, which is a major source of revenue. The left-wing rebel group, considered a terrorist organization by the United States, has been fighting the government since the 1960s.
FARC’s new leader, known as Timochenko, recently said the group would be interested in talks, but did not elaborate. President Santos dismissed the call for peace talks as empty rhetoric.
