FARC Attack Leaves Colombia Port City without Power

W460

Some 400,000 people in Colombia's bustling port city of Buenaventura lost power Sunday after a key electrical tower was destroyed -- an act military officials blamed on FARC rebels.

"At 9:45 am (1445 GMT) Buenaventura was left without electrical service," read a statement from the power company, the Energy Enterprise of the Pacific (EPSA).

A military overflight located the destroyed electricity tower some 27 kilometers (18 miles) from the urban center of Buenaventura, officials said, after two large explosions were reported.

The port of Buenaventura, Colombia's largest, handles most of the nation's foreign trade. 

The attacks notwithstanding, the Marxist rebels with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia and the government are in peace talks dating back to November 2012, to end a decades old civil war. 

The conflict has killed some 200,000 people and uprooted more than six million since FARC launched its Marxist-inspired guerrilla insurgency in 1964.

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