The Colombian Prosecutor’s Office ruled out on Thursday that the vice president, Francia Márquez, had been at risk of suffering an attack with explosives in January, when the senior official denounced threats against her life.
The attorney general, Francisco Barbosa, told the press that through an expert opinion made by the investigation team they found that “it cannot be concluded that there was an improvised explosive device that caused damage for a possible attack.”
The conclusion of the Prosecutor’s Office contradicts a report released by Márquez on January 10, in which he detailed that his security team found seven to nine kilograms of explosives installed one meter from the road that leads to his family residence in Yolombó, in the southwest of the country, during a security inspection prior to the visit that Márquez had planned to the area.
“We ruled out the attack and we continue to investigate everything related to its security scheme,” Barbosa said.
The prosecutor added that they identified the author of an email with a threatening message that the vice president received and reported on March 23. The man was located in Antioquia, in the northwest of the country, and according to Barbosa, he agreed to be the author of the message, for which he will be charged with the crime of threatening public servants.
After denouncing an attempted attack in January, Márquez maximized his security and from then on decided to take a helicopter to go to Yolombó to visit his relatives, which has generated criticism from some political sectors of the country who question the lack of austerity.
In the international community, Márquez’s complaint for considering that his life was at risk had an echo and the representatives of France, Malta, Albania, the United Arab Emirates, Japan, Brazil and Ecuador expressed their rejection of the attack during the Security Council of the Nations Nations held in January.
Márquez’s security problems did not start with her tenure as vice president. Before her, as a social and environmental leader, she survived a grenade attack in 2019 and has denounced multiple threats for pointing out illegal mining in her territory.
