At least seven people have been killed and more than 20 injured after a bomb was detonated on a major Colombian motorway in what authorities have condemned as a deliberate terrorist attack on civilians.
The explosion struck the Pan-American Highway in the El Túnel sector of Cajibío, in the southwestern Cauca region, when a cylinder packed with explosives was launched at a passenger bus. The blast tore a large crater into the road and destroyed several surrounding vehicles, with harrowing footage shared by local officials showing debris strewn across the highway, badly damaged vans and at least one vehicle overturned in a roadside ditch.
Cauca Governor Octavio Guzmán confirmed the death toll and described the scale of the devastation. “An explosive device was detonated on the Pan-American Highway in an indiscriminate attack against the civilian population that, according to preliminary reports, has left seven civilians dead and more than 17 seriously injured,” he said, a figure later revised upward to 20 wounded.
Guzmán did not hold back in his condemnation. “It is a tragedy that tears us apart as a department and deeply saddens our families,” he said. “This is a direct offensive against life, against a defenceless people. We will not allow the violence to continue imposing fear and challenging the State.”
The attack is not an isolated incident. The Colombian Army has linked two previous bombings in the Cauca region — including one also carried out on the Pan-American Highway — to a dissident faction of FARC led by Iván Mordisco, one of Colombia’s most wanted men. Neither of those earlier attacks resulted in casualties.
FARC, which waged an insurgency against the Colombian state for more than five decades — funded largely through kidnapping, extortion and drug trafficking — signed a landmark peace agreement with the government in 2016. However, a number of factions refused to disarm and broke away from the deal, continuing armed operations in rural parts of the country, particularly in the Cauca region.
In response to Thursday’s attack, Defence Minister Pedro Sánchez Suárez travelled to Cali to chair an emergency security council meeting to assess the situation.
