BOGOTA, Colombia — A helicopter carrying President Ivan Duque was fired on while flying over a cocaine-producing region in eastern Colombia near the border with Venezuela.
No one was injured in Friday’s incident, Duque said in an audio message sent by his press office.
The Black Hawk received six bullet impacts, according to the news magazine Semana, which didn’t say how it obtained the information.
Illegal armed groups tied to drug trafficking operate in Norte de Santander province, where the attack took place. These include dissident members of the Marxist FARC guerrilla organization, who turned their back on the peace process and took up arms again.
The attack drew international condemnation.
Government leaders in Argentina, Mexico and Chile denounced the use of violence. Juan Gonzalez, a senior director at the White House’s National Security Council, expressed support for Duque on Twitter.
Leaders of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee called for a full investigation into the attack.
“We will do all we can to help President Duque’s government bring the perpetrators to justice,” Representatives Gregory Meeks and Michael McCaul, among others, said in a statement Saturday.
