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Colombia is offering a grounds 1.4 cardinal U.S. dollars reward for accusation starring to the apprehension of the antheral accused of ordering an attack that killed 21 radical Saturday and wounded dozens more.
The country's defence minister, Pedro Sanchez, said Iván Jacob Idrobo Arredondo, besides known arsenic "Marlon," was down the bombing of a motorway successful the Cauca region, successful the country's southwest, arsenic good arsenic respective different adjacent attacks.
The detonation Saturday killed astatine slightest 15 women connected the engaged motorway, according to the politician of Cauca, Octavio Guzmán, leaving down the twisted metallic debris of aggregate vehicles by a 650-foot crater successful the road.
Red Cross workers run astatine the tract of an detonation arsenic radical look connected aft a weaponry onslaught astatine El Tunel, connected the Popayan-Cali road, successful Cajibio, Cauca department, Colombia, connected April 25, 2026.
JOAQUIN SARMIENTO /AFP via Getty Images
Guzmán said the bombing was the "most brutal and ruthless onslaught [in the region] against the civilian colonisation successful decades."
In a video connected Sanchez's Facebook page, successful which the defence curate looked down connected the tract of the onslaught from a helicopter, helium described Marlon arsenic "demented" and "a terrorist" who killed "humble radical who were lone seeking the best."
He added they would bash "everything necessary" truthful "this doesn't hap again."
The weaponry was detonated aft attackers blocked postulation with a autobus and different vehicle, the caput of the country's equipped forces, Hugo López, said successful a property league Saturday.
The country's president, Gustavo Petro, described the attackers arsenic "terrorists" and "fascists" successful a station connected X, adding, "I privation our precise champion soldiers to face them."
Relatives mourn by the coffin of Daniela Valencia Holguin, a fatal unfortunate of a road bombing successful Cajibio, Cauca department, Colombia, connected April 27, 2026.
JOAQUIN SARMIENTO /AFP via Getty Images
Saturday's bombing was one of 26 targeting nationalist infrastructure successful the Valle del Cauca and Cauca regions successful 2 days, according to López. It comes with equipped unit a cardinal contented successful the run-up to Colombia's statesmanlike predetermination connected May 31.
Marlon is portion of an equipped radical led by Colombia's astir wanted man, Iván Mordisco. Described by Petro arsenic a "drug trafficker dressed arsenic a revolutionary," Mordisco runs the Central General Staff, 1 of respective dissident offshoots of the now-defunct Marxist-Leninist guerrilla enactment the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.
A 2016 accord between the authorities and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known by its Spanish acronym FARC, saw immoderate 7,000 rebels disarm, but Mordisco, whose existent sanction is Néstor Gregorio Vera Fernández, was 1 of the 2,000 oregon truthful self-styled rebels who refused to laic down their arms.
Saturday's bombing was 1 of the deadliest successful Colombia since the FARC killed 36 radical successful the bombing of a Bogotá nighttime club successful 2003.
Red Cross workers transportation an injured idiosyncratic connected a stretcher aft a weaponry onslaught astatine El Tunel, connected the Popayan-Cali road, successful Cajibio, Cauca department, Colombia, connected April 25, 2026.
JOAQUIN SARMIENTO /AFP via Getty Images
Another of the FARC dissident groups, the National Liberation Army, killed 21 radical connected a constabulary academy campus successful 2019.
Last August, Mordisco's Central General Staff killed astatine slightest 18 radical successful a drone onslaught connected a chopper and a car bombing.
El Colombiano reported Tuesday that information forces judge the apprehension of 4 of Mordisco's brothers and the decease of his woman successful a bombardment by the Colombian aerial unit whitethorn person been a information for the caller spate of bombings. Mordisco was wounded successful the aforesaid strike, El Colombiano reported.
Saturday's onslaught came conscionable implicit a period retired from nationalist elections successful Colombia, successful which voters volition take betwixt Iván Cepeda, the successor to the left-wing existent president, who is presently up successful the polling and who favors further bid negotiations with guerrilla groups, oregon right-wing alternatives, who instrumentality a tougher stance connected the equipped fighters.
Security has been a cardinal contented of the predetermination campaign. The blimpish front-runner Miguel Uribe Turbay was changeable portion retired campaigning successful Bogotá past June, and died 2 months aboriginal of his wounds.
Many of the victims of Saturday's onslaught were reportedly from a colony adjacent the municipality of Cajibío, wherever a vigil was held Monday, with hundreds of radical dressing successful achromatic arsenic a motion of peace.
"Please, nary much death, nary much violence," Joao Valencia, 42, a comparative of a pistillate killed successful the attack, told Agence France Presse, arsenic she assistance up her picture.
"These kinds of women should dice of aged age," helium added, "not person their lives taken from them successful specified a tragic way."
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