Bogotá. Two attacks carried out simultaneously on Thursday in Colombia have left at least 14 people dead, including police officers, and dozens injured, according to authorities who attributed them to dissidents of the defunct guerrilla group Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

Colombian President Gustavo Petro reported that eight police officers were killed and eight more were injured as a result of the attack on a Colombian police helicopter, which was shot down in Antioquia, in northwestern Colombia. He stated that the aircraft was tasked with transporting personnel to eradicate coca crops in the rural area of Amalfi.

Petro pointed to the FARC dissidents as the alleged perpetrators through the social network X, although he had previously pointed to the Clan del Golfo, the largest drug cartel active in the country, assuring that the helicopter was attacked in retaliation for the seizure of cocaine that allegedly belonged to the group.

Both the FARC dissidents—who did not accept a peace agreement with the government in 2016—and the Gulf Clan have a presence in Antioquia.

Petro later asked"the world" to consider the "drug trafficking junta" a terrorist organization, an organization about which there are no public details and which he said led several factions of the FARC dissidents and the Gulf Clan.

Antioquia Governor Andrés Julián said on the same social media platform that the helicopter was attacked by a drone in the middle of coca leaf fields, without providing further details. Defense Minister Pedro Sánchez stated that preliminary information indicates the attack caused a fire in the helicopter, without indicating that it was shot down.

At the same time, the detonation of a vehicle loaded with explosives was reported near the Marco Fidel Suárez Air Base, a military aviation school in the city of Cali, in the southwest of the country, the Colombian Aerospace Force reported.

The Cali mayor's office reported five deaths and 36 injuries, without specifying whether all were civilians.

Petro accused the dissidents of the"Carlos Patiño column" of being behind the explosion in Cali, a reaction to the military operations that have been ongoing for months in the Micay Canyon area, which is full of coca leaf crops.

The area planted with coca leaf in Colombia in 2023 reached 253,000 hectares, a record in the country considered the main producer of the raw material for cocaine, according to the latest report available from the UN office.

The Petro administration, the first leftist to govern Colombia, is advancing peace talks with the Gulf Clan within the framework of its"total peace" policy, seeking to bring them under the control of the justice system, with the help of the prosecutor's office, in exchange for legal benefits. It has also attempted unsuccessful talks with dissident factions of the FARC.