A little bit over a month earlier than the presidential election, violence dominates the electoral marketing campaign in Colombia. The nation is in reality hit by a collection of assaults. On Saturday, a bomb assault left no less than “14 useless and greater than 38 injured, together with 5 minors,” the governor of the Cauca division, Octavio Guzmán, declared on X.
The occasions happened on a highway in southwest Colombia. Authorities blamed the primary dissidence of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc), which didn’t adhere to the 2016 peace settlement and is sowing terror within the nation.
Witnesses projected a number of meters away
Photos present folks across the our bodies of the victims, destroyed automobiles and deep craters on a highway within the Cauca division, a standard zone of affect of armed teams, the place the explosion occurred. Witnesses mentioned the impression threw them and their automobiles a number of meters.
A police supply mentioned rescue groups had been nonetheless attempting to find lacking folks. It’s tough to evaluate the variety of victims as a result of exchanges of fireside with guerrillas in three police stations in Cauca, she added.
Farc dissident chief in comparison with Pablo Escobar
“Those that dedicated this assault and killed (…) are terrorists, fascists and drug traffickers,” denounced on X President Gustavo Petro, who’s making ready to go away energy. “I need one of the best troopers to face them,” he added, accusing the leader of the main FARC dissidence, Ivan Mordiscowhom he typically in comparison with the late drug lord Pablo Escobar.
After a 12 months of attempting to barter a peace take care of Mordisco, the primary left-wing president in Colombia’s historical past opted for a head-on warfare with the guerrilla. A reward of roughly a million {dollars} is being provided for info resulting in his seize.
This newest wave of assaults exacerbates the local weather of pressure within the run-up to the presidential election on Could 31, the place safety has been one of many central themes since the assassination of right-wing candidate Miguel Uribeshot useless throughout a gathering in June 2025. Gustavo Petro’s political inheritor obvious, senator Iván Cepeda, is favored within the polls, adopted by the right-wing candidates Abelardo de la Espriella and Paloma Valencia. All three have reported demise threats and profit from strengthened safety preparations.
