Blast near police station on Colombia’s border with Venezuela leaves 1 dead and 11 injured

On Tuesday, a car bomb detonated outside a police station in Los Patios, a town located on Colombia's border with Venezuela and part of the Cucuta metropolitan area, resulting in the death of one civilian and injuries to eleven others, officials reported. The attack occurred around midnight. Police officers are among those wounded in the incident.

President Abelardo de la Espriella vowed that Colombia would not surrender to terrorism. In August, another explosion outside a police station in Cucuta left 11 police officers dead and a police dog injured, which officials attributed to the National Liberation Army, Colombia's largest remaining rebel group. The region around Cucuta has been a hotspot for conflict between drug gangs and rebel groups vying for control over smuggling routes into Venezuela.

While a peace agreement signed a decade ago between Colombia's government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) has significantly reduced violence in many areas, crime has surged in some regions as smaller factions battle each other and attack the Colombian government in their pursuit of territory once held by FARC.

De la Espriella, who assumed office in August, has vowed to combat crime and has recently abandoned peace negotiations with rebel groups.