Highway bombing in Colombia kills at least 14 amid a ‘wave’ of attacks

By Annabella González, CNN

(CNN) — At least 14 people were killed and at least 38 wounded, including five children, after a bomb tore apart a busy road in southwestern Colombia, according to local authorities.

The incident was part of a “wave” of terror attacks this weekend, Colombian officials also said, as deadly violence resurges in the country.

“An explosive device was detonated on the Pan-American Highway, in the El Túnel sector of Cajibío, in an indiscriminate attack against the civilian population,” said Cauca Governor Octavio Guzmán in a post on X.

Guzmán later added in an update that Colombia’s Minister of Defense Pedro Sánchez was at the scene of the explosion to help “coordinate rescue efforts.” Authorities are “initiating a national-level security council to address this serious situation,” the governor said.

Videos published on social media showed the aftermath of the explosion, with a deep crater blown in the center of the road. Mangled cars, trucks, and buses covered in dust and debris lay around the site of the explosion, along with the bodies of its victims.

“We are facing a terrorist escalation that demands immediate responses,” Guzmán said, issuing an “urgent” call to national authorities to guarantee security.

Authorities also received reports of violent incidents elsewhere, including in El Túnel, El Tambo, Caloto, Popayán, Guachené, Mercaderes, and Miranda, in what General Commander of Military Forces of Colombia Hugo Alejandro López Barreto described as “a wave of attacks.”

Colombia blames FARC dissidents

Colombia’s Armed Forces have blamed the highway bombing on dissident factions of a defunct leftist militant group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), led by Néstor Gregorio Vera Fernández, a militant leader better known by his nom de guerre “Iván Mordisco.”

FARC laid down its arms in 2016 and eventually disbanded after a peace agreement ended over 50 years of war with the Colombian government – a conflict that killed over 220,000 and displaced some 5 million Colombians.

However, some members of the militant group refused to engage in the peace process from the start. These dissident fighters – which include splinter groups who fight among themselves – have continued a low-level insurgency in some rural parts of Colombia.

López Barreto said at a press conference that “a wave of attacks” took place in the Cauca and Valle del Cauca departments on Saturday, blaming the “criminal structures” of FARC dissidents led by “Iván Mordisco.”

“Over these two days in the departments of Cauca and Valle del Cauca, 26 terrorist actions have occurred that have affected our civilian population,” López stated, adding that this series of attacks is a response to the “sustained pressure” the Colombian government has exerted on these groups’ criminal operations.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro has called for “the maximum worldwide pursuit against this narco-terrorist group,” which he also linked to “Iván Mordisco.”

“Those who attacked and killed seven civilians and wounded 17 more in Cajibío — many of them indigenous — are terrorists, fascists, and drug traffickers,” Petro wrote on X.

The attack came hours after Petro’s visit to Venezuela alongside Colombia’s top military brass, where he announced with acting President Delcy Rodríguez that the two countries had agreed to jointly combat criminal groups along their shared border — one of the longest in the region, stretching more than 1,370 miles.

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CNN’s Uriel Blanco contributed to this report.