The attack
On the evening of February 7, 2003, an explosive device concealed in a vehicle detonated inside Club El Nogal in northern Bogotá. The attack struck a civilian social club and caused extensive loss of life, injuries and destruction.
The National Center for Historical Memory has reported 36 people killed and 198 injured. A 2024 JEP notice uses the same figures. Other official Colombian records, including material from the Truth Commission, use 33 deaths and 198 injured, while a 2023 JEP decision lists 36 deaths and 158 injured. This archive therefore identifies the range and treats the 36/198 count as the most frequently repeated official tally, not as an uncontested universal figure.
Attribution to the FARC-EP
Colombia's Truth Commission concluded that FARC-EP carried out the bombing. The Colombian Supreme Court, in later civil litigation arising from the attack, likewise described the bombing as an act perpetrated by the FARC in the context of the armed conflict.
The attribution is not based only on later journalism. It appears in judicial and transitional-justice records, and former FARC members have subsequently recognized responsibility before the Special Jurisdiction for Peace.
Individual responsibility and the JEP
On August 25, 2023, the JEP's Amnesty or Pardon Chamber ruled that conduct attributed to Herminsul Arellán Barajas and Fernando Arellán Barajas in the El Nogal attack was not amnistiable. The JEP described them as coauthors and classified the relevant conduct as war crimes and violations of international humanitarian law.
The case was directed into JEP Case 10, which investigates non-amnistiable crimes committed by members of the former FARC-EP. In subsequent voluntary testimony, former members of the organization recognized FARC-EP responsibility for the bombing. Those acknowledgments contribute to the truth and accountability process but do not mean every question about planning, command responsibility or individual participation has already reached a final judicial disposition.
Why the archive marks the case partial
The event itself is not an unidentified mystery: responsibility has been institutionally attributed to FARC-EP, and the JEP has made concrete findings concerning named former members. But the transitional-justice investigation remains broader than those findings. For that reason, the most accurate status is partially adjudicated / transitional justice active, rather than either "unsolved" or fully closed.
Timeline
February 7, 2003: the bombing strikes Club El Nogal in Bogotá.
Following years: criminal, civil and conflict-related investigations examine the attack and responsibility for it.
2020-2022: Colombian memory and truth institutions continue documenting the bombing as part of the armed conflict.
August 25, 2023: the JEP rules that conduct by two former FARC members in the attack is non-amnistiable and sends the matter into Case 10.
2024-2025: the JEP continues victim accreditation and voluntary testimony; former FARC members recognize organizational responsibility for El Nogal.
Current status
The El Nogal bombing is historically attributed to FARC-EP and has generated concrete judicial and transitional-justice findings. The broader Case 10 process remains active, so responsibility is established in important respects but the full accountability record is not treated here as completely closed.
Sources
- JEP — 2023 ruling on non-amnistiable conduct and two coauthors
- JEP — victim accreditation and Case 10, February 19, 2024
- JEP — former FARC members recognize responsibility, 2025
- National Center for Historical Memory — El Nogal victim record
- Truth Commission — historical account and casualty-count variation