Bogota, June 2 (teleSUR-RHC)-- An attack on infrastructure carried out on Sunday by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as the FARC, has left Colombia's main Pacific port city without electricity, the Colombian Military Forces reported.
The FARC used explosives to knock out a transmission tower in a rural part of the country, cutting off electricity to the city of Buenaventura in the southwest of the country, leaving 400,000 people without power.
Colombia’s minister of defense, Juan Carlos Pinzon, said the attack was an act of “terrorism.” The attack is a signal that the rebels will resume their targeting of critical infrastructure, after a government airstrike that killed 27 guerrillas lead the FARC to suspend its unilateral cease-fire.
The Colombian government resumed its airstrikes against FARC camps after a clash in April left 11 government soldiers dead.
The FARC bombing of the transmission tower is just the latest incident in a recent escalation of the armed conflict, despite the fact that the parties are in the midst of peace negotiations that seek to bring an end to the five-decade-long conflict.
Government airstrikes killed another 10 guerrillas on May 23 in the Antioquia region, while a high-ranking commander was killed along with three others in the Choco region on May 25.
Representatives from Cuba and Norway, mediators of the Colombian peace process, along with prominent Colombian politicians have insisted on a bilateral cease-fire in order to help deescalate the armed conflict that has grown bloodier over the last two months.
