Colombian presidents targeted by criminal organisations
Friday's attack on the helicopter in which Colombian President Iván Duque was travelling to Cúcuta brought to mind other attacks on Colombian presidents during the bloodiest times of the armed conflict.
The shooting attack on the presidential helicopter, which was also carrying the ministers of defence, Diego Molano, and of the interior, Daniel Palacios, as well as the governor of Norte de Santander, Silvano Serrano, could have ended in tragedy but the crew managed to land safely at Camilo Daza international airport in Cúcuta.
In terms of the number of deaths, the most serious attack on a Colombian president occurred on 7 August 2002 when FARC guerrillas launched rockets and mortars at the Casa de Nariño, the seat of power, shortly before the inauguration of Álvaro Uribe as president.
Some of the rockets deflected and landed on homes in El Cartucho, a poor neighbourhood in central Bogotá, killing 19 people and injuring 40 others.
The victims were mostly homeless people who lived in the area near the Casa de Nariño, which is now a park.
The then Prince Felipe of Asturias and Latin American presidents were guests at the inauguration of the head of state.
In February 2003, the FARC perpetrated another attack against Uribe near the airport in Neiva, capital of the southern department of Huila, but the bomb exploded before the presidential plane landed, leaving 15 dead and 66 wounded.
On that day, the attack was carried out by detonating a house full of explosives near the Benito Salas airport and the victims were nine policemen, a prosecutor and five civilians who were part of the presidential security detail.
For this attack, the guerrilla explosives expert Aldemar Soto Charry, alias "El Ingeniero", a member of the feared Teófilo Forero mobile column of the FARC, which operated in the south of the country, was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
In April 2002, when Uribe was a presidential candidate, he was the victim of another FARC attack in Barranquilla, capital of the department of Atlántico (north).
FARC guerrillas set off explosive charges as Uribe, who was travelling in an armoured caravan, passed in front of the caravan in which he was travelling and was unharmed.
Five people were killed in the attack and dozens more were wounded, most of them bystanders.
Another terrorist attack struck the country on 27 November 1989 when an Avianca plane that had just taken off from Bogotá for Cali exploded in mid-flight, killing all 107 people on board and three more on the ground.
The attack was attributed to Medellín drug cartel kingpin Pablo Escobar and was aimed at the then Liberal presidential candidate César Gaviria Trujillo, who ultimately did not board the flight and was elected head of state.
The presidential campaign also saw the assassination of candidates Luis Carlos Galán and Bernardo Jaramillo, both in 1989, and Carlos Pizarro in 1990.