As many as 14 people have been killed and 38 injured in a bomb explosion in southwest Colombia, including children, with authorities blaming the guerrilla fighters.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro blamed the attack on rebels linked to dissident factions of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), one of the longest-running insurgency groups in Latin America.
After staying silent for some years, political violence has once again re-emerged in the country after peace talks between the FARC and the government ended in deadlock, despite the president’s strategy of “total peace”.
“Those who carried out this attack… are terrorists, fascists and drug traffickers,” Petro said on X, adding, “I want our very best soldiers to confront them.”
In a separate statement, Petro reiterated his call for intensified operations and demanded the highest level of international tracking against what he described as a “narco-terrorist group".
Some videos posted on X showed scrambled and damaged vehicles with a large crater in the middle of the road along the highway in Cauca, said local Governor Octavio Guzman, who later described the bombings as “indiscriminate”.
“Cauca cannot continue to face this barbarity alone,” Guzman wrote.
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