The death toll from a bombing on a Colombian highway on Saturday, May 17, has risen to 20, with another 36 people injured, including minors. The blast occurred on the Pan-American Highway in the southern Cauca region, leaving a crater 200 meters wide.
Videos from the scene showed damaged vehicles and debris strewn across the road. Colombian President Gustavo Petro blamed the attack on rebels linked to dissident factions of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Local Governor Octavio Guzman described it as the most brutal attack on civilians in decades.
Peace talks between FARC and the government in 2016 ended in a deal under which thousands of fighters demobilized, but some broke away and refused to disarm. Petro stated on X: "Those who carried out this attack... are terrorists, fascists and drug traffickers. I want our very best soldiers to confront them."
Governor Guzman posted a video of upturned vehicles and craters, calling the bombing "indiscriminate." He wrote: "Cauca cannot continue to face this barbarity alone." According to his update, 15 women and five men were killed. Witnesses told AFP that the blast was so powerful they were knocked back several meters.
A spate of smaller attacks has been reported in Cauca since Friday, including one targeting a military base in Cali that injured two people. Defense Minister Pedro Arnulfo Sánchez said a bus filled with explosives failed to detonate earlier in the day in Cauca, allegedly carried out by members of a drug-trafficking cartel.
The attacks come one month before Colombia's presidential election on May 31. Petro, a former guerrilla fighter, has been pursuing a controversial peace strategy with various armed factions, including intermittent ceasefires. His term ends later this year.
Multiple dissident offshoots of FARC operate across Colombia, many with extensive involvement in drug trafficking. Efforts by Petro's left-wing government to start peace talks with them have been unsuccessful.
Left-wing candidate Ivan Cepeda, endorsed by Petro, has called for more negotiation efforts with the rebels. Opposition right-wing candidates Paloma Valencia and Abelardo De la Espriella have promised a crackdown on the insurgents.
Source: www.bbc.com