The Colombian Police deactivated on Wednesday a drone equipped for explosives 5.4 kilometers from the ramp of the Military Air Transport Command (Catam), the Bogotá airbase that shares runways with El Dorado airport, the busiest passenger airport in all of Latin America. The information, which emerged this Thursday in various media outlets, has been confirmed by a source in the Prosecutor’s Office. The device was found in the Bogotá locality of Kennedy, where the authorities carried out a controlled detonation. They arrived there thanks to information found by the Popayán Prosecutor’s Office, the capital of the Cauca department and hundreds of kilometers from Bogotá, in a judicial operation. Authorities are investigating whether those responsible for the drone are members of the so-called Carlos Patiño Front, an illegal group operating in the southwest of the country and part of the dissidents of the extinct FARC led by alias Iván Mordisco.
The report of the finding states that the device was equipped with “a plastic pipe, wiring, and fiber optics for guidance, avoiding electronic inhibition,” referring to its ability to bypass drone jammers. There is still no clarity on when the drone fell in Bogotá: initial investigations suggest it could have been two or three days ago, or two weeks ago. There is also no confirmation on whether it carried a grenade or 300 grams of the explosive C4.
Accusations against the Carlos Patiño Front arise from a device found in northern Cauca, an area of influence of the armed group. There were the coordinates of the drone in Bogotá. The Popayán Prosecutor’s Office alerted Aerocivil, which in turn notified the Police. The drone was dismantled in a grassy area in Bogotá. According to the consulted source, the coordinates of the site where the drone was supposed to impact matched Catam.
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