For decades, residents of Bogotá lived in fear of being a victim of a bombing by leftist rebels or Pablo Escobar's Medellín drug cartel.

The most prominent was an explosion at the upmarket Andino shopping mall in June 2017 which killed three people, including a French woman, and injured another 11.

[9] Police later arrested several suspected members of a far-left urban guerrilla group called the People Revolutionary's Movement for the bombing.

[13] In November 2018, InSight Crime also reported that the ELN was present in over twelve Venezuelan states, spanning from the Colombia-Venezuela border in the west across Venezuela and into Brazil and Guyana to the east.

[14] Attorney General Néstor Humberto Martínez [es] identified the perpetrator as José Aldemar Rojas Rodríguez, known as "Mocho Kiko" because of his missing hand due to a previous explosion, a 57-year-old from the northern department of Boyacá.

[11] Ricardo Carvajal, who was previously investigated for drug trafficking in 2012 but was acquitted of the charges, allegedly contracted Rojas for the bombing due to his experience.

In May 2018, Colombian records show that Rojas purchased a 1993 Nissan Patrol from Mauricio Mosquera, who was previously charged with terrorism and rebellion.

[10][12] The authorities stated that on 17 January 2019 at 9:30 am, Rojas drove his grey 1993 Nissan Patrol loaded with 80 kilograms (180 lb) of pentolite[18] to the campus of the General Santander National Police Academy and dropped off a passenger at a nearby bus stop.

[10] In the immediate aftermath, the authorities began investigating Rojas's possible connections to either the National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrilla movement, the Clan Úsuga organized crime gang, or FARC dissidents.

[19] On 18 January, Defence Minister Guillermo Botero identified Rojas Rodríguez as a long-time member of the ELN, within which he served as an explosives expert.