Two Colombian nationals were sentenced to 30 and 35 years in prison, respectively, for their role in a 2021 car bombing that left more than 40 people injured, including three American soldiers.
Andres Fernando Medina Rodriguez, 40, and Ciro Alfonso Gutierrez Ballesteros, 31 were formally sentenced on Thursday, Sept. 12 after pleading guilty to multiple charges of conspiracy to murder American soldiers.
On June 15, 2021, a car bomb went off next to the 30th Army Brigade Base in Cucuta, Colombia, close to the Colombian border with Venezuela. The attack wounded 44 members of the Colombian military as well as three Americans with the U.S. Security Force Assistance Brigade deployed to the country.
According to prosecutors, the attack was targeting the American military personnel. The two men worked with the 33rd Front, a group with ties to Colombia’s Las Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias or FARC. FARC and Colombia signed a peace agreement in 2016, although dissidents within the group continue to fight the government. As part of the plot, Medina Rodriguez extensively surveilled the Colombian base. He was a former Colombian army officer who received a medical discharge, and he was able to use his connections to get onto the base. Prosecutors said that he scoped out the area specifically used by American soldiers.
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Following that surveillance, he and Gutierrez Ballesteros brought a white SUV to the 33rd Front, which converted it into a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device. Medina Rodriguez then drove it to the base on June 15. He activated a timer for the bomb and then fled on a motorcycle driven by Gutierrez Ballesteros.
Medina Rodriguez was extradited to the United States in late 2023, while Gutierrez Ballesteros was extradited earlier this year. They faced up to life in prison from the charges, before their guilty plea.
“Our most urgent mission and highest priority is to hold those accountable who target Americans, to include the brave men and women who serve as members of our uniformed services domestically and around the world,” U.S. Attorney Markenzy Lapointe for the Southern District of Florida said in a statement following the sentencing. “As seen by the prison sentences imposed upon defendants Medina Rodriguez and Gutierrez Ballesteros today, individuals who threaten the safety and security of the United States and our fellow Americans will face the full force of our nation’s criminal justice system.”
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