Colombia explosives attack kills 13, police source says

BOGOTA: At least 13 people were killed and 17 wounded in an explosives attack in western Colombia on Saturday, a police source told Reuters, in violence authorities have blamed on dissidents of the FARC guerrilla group.

The attack took place on the Pan-American Highway in the El Tunel area of Cajibio municipality, about 35 km (22 miles) from Popayan, the capital of Cauca province, according to authorities.

Cauca Governor Octavio Guzman said on X the attack was one of several criminal actions reported in the province on Saturday. “Cauca cannot continue to face this barbarity alone.

We are facing a terrorist escalation that demands immediate responses.

We demand forceful, sustained and effective action from the national government in the face of the grave public order crisis we are experiencing,“ he added. Presidential candidate Paloma Valencia, a member of the opposition right-wing Democratic Center party who is from Cauca, called the attack “terrorism” carried out by the dissident FARC faction, which rejected a 2016 peace deal. “President Gustavo Petro’s government cannot continue minimizing the violence or dismantling the state,” she said.

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“We demand immediate action, full backing for our Armed Forces and police, and concrete results.” Petro, a former rebel himself whose term as president is nearing an end, has pursued a “total peace” policy with guerrillas through negotiations and intermittent ceasefires.