Death toll rises to 20 in Colombian highway bombing as president blames FARC dissidents
Attack on Pan-American Highway in southern Cauca region described as most brutal against civilians in decades, with one month until presidential election
Quick Look
- A bombing on the Pan-American Highway in Colombia's southern Cauca region has killed 20 people and injured 36, including minors.
- President Gustavo Petro blamed the attack on rebels linked to dissident factions of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), calling them terrorists and drug traffickers.
- The attack created a 200-metre crater and marks the most brutal violence against civilians in the region in decades, occurring one month before the May 31 presidential election.
AI-generated summary
Why It Matters
The 2016 peace deal between the Colombian government and FARC ended decades of conflict, with thousands of fighters demobilising. However, some dissident factions refused to lay down arms and continue operating across Colombia, many with extensive involvement in drug trafficking. President Petro's left-wing government has attempted peace talks with these groups without success.
The death toll from a bombing on a Colombian highway on Saturday has risen to 20, with another 36 people injured, including minors. Videos shared from the scene showed damaged vehicles and debris strewn across the Pan-American Highway in the southern Cauca region.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro blamed the attack on rebels linked to dissident factions of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc), while local governor Octavio Guzman described the attack as the most brutal against civilians in decades.
Peace talks between FARC and the government in 2016 ended in a deal under which thousands of fighters demobilised, but some broke away and refused to disarm.
"Those who carried out this attack... are terrorists, fascists and drug traffickers," Petro said on X. "I want our very best soldiers to confront them," he added.
Guzman posted a video on X of upturned vehicles and craters littered along the highway and described the bombing as "indiscriminate". On Sunday, he said in an update that 15 women and five men had been killed in the attack, which left a crater 200 metres in size.
Witnesses told the AFP news agency that the blast was so powerful they were knocked back several metres. A spate of smaller attacks have also been reported in Cauca since Friday, the governor added, including one that targeted a military base in the city of Cali that injured two people.
Defence Minister Pedro Arnulfo Sánchez said a bus filled with explosives failed to detonate earlier in the day in the Cauca region, saying it was carried out by members of a drug-trafficking cartel.
The latest attacks come one month out from Colombia's presidential election on 31 May. Petro, himself a former guerrilla fighter, has been pursuing a controversial peace strategy with various armed factions which has seen intermittent ceasefires and periods of relatively little violence. His term will end later this year.
Multiple dissident offshoots of the FARC operate across Colombia, many of them with extensive involvement in drug trafficking. Efforts by Petro's left-wing government to start peace talks with them have been unsuccessful.
What to Watch
AI outlook — possibilities, not facts
Military operations in Cauca will intensify in coming days
Very likely · Within days
The attack will become a campaign issue in the presidential election
Very likely · Within weeks
Open Questions
- Which specific FARC dissident group carried out the attack
- Whether the timing relates to the upcoming presidential election
- Details on the minors injured in the attack
