Bomb blast on Colombia highway leaves 21 dead amid pre-election violence

Also: Colombia offers record $1.4m-reward for rebel it blames for deadly bomb attack (BBC)

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Source: The Guardian and agencies

Bomb blast on Colombia highway leaves 21 dead amid pre-election violence

Cocaine-trafficking rebels blamed for worst attack on civilians in decades that also left 56 people injured

Guardian staff and agencies
Mon 27 Apr 2026 18.23 BST
First published on Mon 27 Apr 2026 12.27 BST

The death toll in a Colombian highway bombing blamed on cocaine-trafficking rebels has risen to 21, the government said on Monday, in the country’s worst attack on civilians in decades and just ahead of elections.

The attack on Saturday left 56 injured and buses and vans mangled on the Pan-American Highway, in the restive south-western Cauca department.

The governor, Octavio Guzmán, described the bombing as the area’s “most brutal and ruthless attack against the civilian population in decades”, adding that it left a crater 200 cubic metres in size. Several cars were flipped over by the force of the explosion.

Fifteen women and five men, all adults, were killed, he said. Of the injured, three people remained in intensive care. Five children were also injured but were “out of danger”.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/apr/27/bomb-pan-american-highway-colombia-casualties-dead-ahead-may-elections

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Source: BBC

Colombia offers record $1.4m-reward for rebel it blames for deadly bomb attack

27 April 2026
Vanessa Buschschlüter
Latin America online editor

Colombia's Defence Minister Pedro Sánchez says he is offering a record reward for information leading to the capture of a rebel leader known as "Marlon".

"Marlon", whose real name is Iván Jacob Idrobo Arredondo, is suspected of having ordered Saturday's bomb attack on the Pan-American Highway, in which 20 people were killed.

The attack is one of the deadliest targeting civilians and comes just over a month before presidential elections scheduled for 31 May.

Sánchez said the 5bn peso ($1.4m; £1m) reward for "Marlon" was the highest offered by Colombia.

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Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwyjykv4j9do