BOGOTA: Colombian police said Tuesday they had arrested five people for the attempted assassination of a former interior minister.
Suspected rebels detonated a bomb attached to the armored vehicle of former interior minister Fernando Londono on May 15, as he was being driven through Bogota. Londono survived the attack but his driver and bodyguard were killed.
President Juan Manuel Santos had earlier announced that seven people had been arrested, but authorities later said that only five were detained.
On his Twitter account, Santos congratulated the police on the arrests and described those detained as "common criminals."
The arrests come as Santos is engaged in exploratory talks to open peace negotiations with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Latin America's oldest leftist guerrilla group.
The attorney general's office said in June that FARC rebels carried out the attack on Londono, who served as interior minister under former president Alvaro Uribe, a hardliner opposed to negotiations with the rebels.
RCN radio station said those arrested included a young man who placed the bomb on Londono's vehicle.
Founded in 1964, the FARC still counts some 9,200 fighters, operating mostly in rural, jungle areas.
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