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Drone Downs Colombian Police Helicopter During Coca Eradication as Officials Split on Blame

  • Two separate attacks in Colombia on August 22 killed at least 18 people and injured dozens, including a car bomb in Cali and a drone downing a police helicopter in Antioquia.
  • Both attacks were carried out by dissident groups of FARC, which rejected the 2016 peace agreement after a six-decade internal conflict that left over 450,000 dead.
  • While responding to coca eradication efforts in Antioquia, a police helicopter was struck by a drone, and separately, in Cali, an explosive device detonated close to a military aviation facility, resulting in six fatalities and injuring more than 70 individuals.
  • President Gustavo Petro blamed the Gulf Clan cartel and FARC dissidents for retaliating against a cocaine seizure, and offered a US$10,000 reward for information about the attacks.
  • These attacks worsen Colombia's security crisis amid record coca cultivation of 253,000 hectares in 2023, complicating efforts to maintain the fragile peace process.
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Lean Right

Colombia was shaken this Thursday by two attacks directed against a police helicopter and an air base that left at least 18 dead and put in focus...

·Madrid, Spain
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Lean Right

At least six people have been killed and many injured in a bomb attack near a military air base in Colombia. At least eight police officers have been killed and a police helicopter shot down in clashes with a drug cartel.

·Stockholm, Sweden
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Lean Left

At least 18 people have been killed and dozens more injured in two attacks in Colombia blamed on splinter groups from the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrilla group, Reuters reported on Friday.

Center

August 21, 2025 – Bogotá – EFE. A car bomb attack in the vicinity of the Military Aviation School in Cali and the shooting down of a police helicopter in a municipality of Antioquia have left a tragic balance of at least thirteen people dead and more than twenty injured in total. The two violent events, which occurred with a difference of a few hours, have again generated alarm in several regions of the country, where FARC, ELN guerrillas and cr…

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La República broke the news in Lima, Peru on Thursday, August 21, 2025.
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