(26 Aug 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Mongua, Colombia – 25 August 2025
1. Various of coffin of Captain Francisco Merchán being escorted by officials and pilots, one carries Merchán’s photo ahead of the procession
2. Coffin being escorted into church
3. Women holding photo of Merchán and a white flower
4. Coffin surrounded by officers mounting guard of honor during religious ceremony
5. Wide of ceremony
6. Merchan’s relatives listening to mass
7. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Jorge Merchán, brother of late Captain Francisco Merchán:
"It’s a feeling that’s impossible to describe in words right now. The soul is scorched, the heart is scorched. We have lost a part of our being and our soul."
8. Various of coffin leaving the church and escorted through Mongua streets
9. Adriana Pinzon, widow of Merchan, walking among officers during escort
10. Various of officers escorting coffin
11. Pinzon crying over her husband’s coffin
STORYLINE:
The Colombian Police pilot who was killed along other 11 officers in an attack to a helicopter was honored during his funeral on Monday in Mongua.
Authorities blamed a remaining group of the defunct FARC rebel group for the attack to the helicopter and a separate car bomb explosion, both carried out on Thursday.
17 people died during the attacks.
The helicopter was transporting personnel to an area in Antioquia in northern Colombia, to eradicate coca leaf crops, the raw material for cocaine.
Petro had reported initially eight officers killed, but Antioquia Gov. Andrés Julián said four others died later and three remain injured.
Petro initially blamed the Gulf Clan, the country’s largest active drug cartel, for the attack on the helicopter.
He said the aircraft was targeted in retaliation for a cocaine seizure that allegedly belonged to the group.
The president said an alleged member of the dissident group was arrested in the area of the explosion.
FARC dissidents, who rejected a peace agreement with the government in 2016, and members of the Gulf Clan both operate in Antioquia.
Coca leaf cultivation is on the rise in Colombia.
The area under cultivation reached a record 253,000 hectares in 2023, according to the latest report available from the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime.
AP Video shot by Marko Alvarez
===========================================================
Clients are reminded to adhere to all listed restrictions and to check the terms of their licence agreements. For further assistance, please contact the AP Archive on: Tel +44(0)2074827482 Email: info@aparchive.com.
Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/
You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/8a2c85b2107d4720b28ab054f21a2dd3
Author: AP Archive
Go to Source
News post in August 31, 2025, 3:04 am.
Visit Our Sponsor’s:
News Post In – News
