Key Points
—A cylinder bomb thrown by FARC dissidents at the El Túnel section of the Panamericana highway in Cajibío, Cauca, on Saturday April 25 killed 19 civilians and wounded 48 — including five minors.
—The military attributed the attack to the Jaime Martínez column of the Estado Mayor Central (EMC), led by Iván Idrobo Arredondo, alias “Marlon”. The Colombian government has offered a reward of approximately US$1.4 million for his capture.
—The bomb hit a bus and at least 15 other vehicles, leaving a 10-metre crater across the highway. Cauca Governor Octavio Guzmán declared three days of departmental mourning under decree 0303-04-2026.
—The Joint Chiefs reported 26 terrorist attacks across Cauca and Valle del Cauca in two days. The Defence Ministry deployed 13 armoured cavalry platoons and 12 infantry platoons to reinforce the region.
The deadliest single FARC dissident attack on Colombian civilians in years arrived hours after President Petro’s bilateral summit in Caracas, where he and Delcy Rodríguez agreed to fight border criminal groups. The Cajibío bomb is a direct response to that pressure — and to the broader military offensive against Iván Mordisco’s structures.
The Rio Times, the Latin American financial news outlet, reports that the Colombia Cauca bomb attack on Saturday April 25 has now claimed 19 civilian lives and left 48 wounded, including five minors who remain in hospital under reserved prognosis. The cylinder bomb was launched at approximately 1:00 p.m. local time at the El Túnel section of the Panamericana highway in Cajibío, the main road artery connecting Cali with Popayán in southwestern Colombia.
The explosion struck a bus and at least 15 additional vehicles. The bus was split in two by the detonation, and the blast carved a crater approximately 10 metres deep through the road surface.
Survivor Mario Guerrero, a driver who was travelling in a column of vehicles when the bomb hit, told local media: “I was in a line of cars. A chiva bus was alongside trying to pass. When I accelerated I felt the explosion and we were thrown.”
Who carried out the Colombia Cauca bomb attack
Defence Minister Pedro Sánchez Suárez attributed the attack to FARC dissidents operating under the command of Néstor Gregorio Vera Fernández, alias “Iván Mordisco”. The specific structure responsible is the Jaime Martínez column, led by Iván Idrobo Arredondo, alias “Marlon”.
“The killers are the narco-terrorists from the dissidents of alias Mordisco’s cartel who operate in this region,” Sánchez said. The government’s wanted poster offers a reward of up to COP 5 billion — approximately US$1.4 million — for information leading to Marlon’s capture.
The Jaime Martínez column is part of the Estado Mayor Central (EMC), the largest of the FARC dissident factions that broke from the 2016 peace agreement. Iván Mordisco himself remains the most-wanted person in Colombia, with a separate multi-million-dollar reward already in place for his capture.
26 attacks in two days across two departments
The Cajibío attack was the deadliest of an extended terrorist offensive. General Hugo Alejandro López Barreto, commander of the Colombian Joint Chiefs, confirmed that 26 separate terrorist actions affected Cauca and Valle del Cauca over the two-day window.
Other affected municipalities included Caloto, El Tambo, Guachené, Mercaderes, Miranda, Timbío, and Patía. In Cali, separate explosive attacks killed one and wounded nine. Car bombs detonated in Corinto and El Bordo, also attributed to FARC dissidents.
López offered an interpretation: “These attacks respond to the sustained pressure that the government has exerted on the criminal activity of these groups. Faced with this offensive, these criminals resort to terrorism and to executing crimes against humanity in a desperate attempt to relieve pressure and generate a media impact that masks their weakening.”
The military reinforcement and the Petro response
The Defence Ministry announced an immediate military reinforcement of Cauca: 13 armoured cavalry platoons, 12 infantry platoons, and additional police units along the Panamericana corridor. The reinforcement also covers the neighbouring departments of Valle del Cauca and Nariño.
President Gustavo Petro ordered “maximum persecution” against the FARC dissidents responsible. The Colombian Army launched aerial surveillance over Cauca to detect additional explosive devices and pre-empt further attacks.
Six interdisciplinary forensic teams — comprising medical examiners, forensic dentists, anthropologists, fingerprint specialists, and support personnel — have been deployed by the Instituto de Medicina Legal to identify the 19 victims and determine causes of death. International solidarity statements arrived from Peru, Paraguay, and Venezuela.
The timing: hours after the Caracas summit
The attack landed within hours of Petro’s return from Caracas, where he had held his bilateral summit with Venezuelan interim president Delcy Rodríguez on Friday April 24. As the Rio Times reported on the Petro-Delcy summit, the two governments explicitly agreed to coordinate against border criminal groups, with FARC dissident structures and the ELN among the principal targets.
The timing matters. FARC dissidents in Cauca have historically used Venezuelan border zones as logistical refuge. A coordinated Colombia-Venezuela security framework removes that refuge, and the Cajibío attack reads as a direct response to the bilateral pressure announced 24 hours earlier.
It also reads as a domestic challenge to Petro himself. Petro signed the 2016 peace accord as a senator and entered the presidency promising “Paz Total” — a negotiated settlement with all armed groups including the FARC dissidents. The Cajibío bomb is the largest mass-casualty attack on Colombian civilians since Petro took office.
What to watch after the Colombia Cauca bomb
Three variables now matter. The first is the operational status of Paz Total.
Petro’s negotiation track with EMC has been suspended at multiple points, and a sustained mass-casualty attack on civilians makes any restart politically untenable in the near term. Whether the government formally suspends the dialogue is the immediate signal to watch.
The second is the operational reach of the deployment. 13 armoured platoons plus 12 infantry plus aerial surveillance are real force, but Cauca’s geography — mountainous, narrow valleys, dense vegetation — has historically protected armed groups against conventional sweeps. The military will be measured on whether it can arrest Marlon or dismantle the Jaime Martínez column rather than on the deployment numbers themselves.
The third is the Venezuela coordination track. Whether Caracas delivers operational cooperation against EMC structures crossing the border determines whether last week’s summit produces results or remains symbolic. Delcy Rodríguez’s interim government is testing its post-Maduro foreign policy, and Cauca will be the first concrete test of whether bilateral security cooperation has changed in practice.
For investors and observers tracking Colombia’s risk profile, the Cajibío attack lands as the country also processes a sovereign downgrade and an Ecopetrol rating cut this month. The Cauca bomb does not change the macro fundamentals directly, but it reinforces the read that the Petro government’s final eighteen months will be defined by an interlocking set of fiscal, political, and security challenges that are now all converging at the same time.
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