The Attorney General's Office concluded the first hearings against the two people arrested for the terrorist attack in Cali, in which six people died last Thursday as a result of a truck bomb planted near the Marco Fidel Suárez Aviation School, which was reportedly the main target where a second car was planned to be detonated.
In the preliminary hearings, a prosecutor specializing in organized crime charged Walter Esteban Yonda Ipía, alias Sebastián, and Carlos Steven Obando, alias El Mono, with the crimes of aggravated homicide of a protected person, attempted aggravated homicide, aggravated conspiracy to commit a crime, and manufacturing, trafficking, and carrying weapons, restricted-use ammunition, ammunition for the exclusive use of the Armed Forces, or explosives.
The charges were not accepted by either of them, and while the process progresses, the judge before whom the proceedings were made decided to send them to prison.
During the hearings, the prosecutor outlined the facts for which these men are now one step away from going to trial. In his account, the investigator detailed the plans they had to carry out the criminal plot and leave the area unharmed.
"Both of them had a specific purpose, and that was to take the two cars to the Marco Fidel Suárez air base. As their godson stated during the interrogation: to light it and flee so as not to be affected by the explosive wave at the moment of the detonation. And the other purpose was Mr. Carlos Obando's. Fortunately, only one car exploded, because otherwise the damage would have been much more significant. These people do belong to a criminal group, to a Gao-r," said the prosecutor.
The premeditation was also mentioned at the hearing, as well as the quantity of explosives they allegedly transported for the criminal plot. First, on Thursday, August 21, at around 2:40 p.m. on 8th Street and 52nd Street, the two men drove their two vehicles in front of the military school,"exploding the vehicle and generating a shock wave, which caused the deaths of several civilians."
The cargo used for this purpose was 358 kilos of explosives in two cars,"a substance that was found in eight 100-pound cylinders ; five 40-pound cylinders packed with 50 kilos of explosives, each based on ammonium nitrate and aluminum powder; 36 tatuco-type explosive devices, packed with three kilos of high explosive each based on ammonium nitrate; 50 meters of detonating control; two electric detonators; and two fragments of safety fuse," said the prosecutor.
According to information to which EL TIEMPO had access, the explosives left Corinto, Cauca -where 'Sebastián' is from-, and began to be moved through different municipalities in the southwest until reaching the capital of Valle del Cauca, where they were detonated in a tragic event that has left six dead and more than 70 injured.
The National Government announced the 'Sultana' operation , with which it seeks to counteract with its Military Forces the criminal expansion of the FARC dissidents in the southwest of the country, and thus stop the planning of other attacks like the one that occurred in Cali.
