At least 14 people were killed and 38 others were wounded in a highway bomb attack in southwestern Colombia on Saturday, underscoring a surge in violence just weeks before the country’s presidential election.The bomb was detonated after the attackers stopped traffic by using a bus and another vehicle to block the road.Authorities said the blast occurred in the conflict-hit Cauca department, a coca-growing region long plagued by unrest, and blamed dissident factions of the now-disintegrated FARC guerrilla group for the attack, as cited by AFP.“Those who carried out this attack… are terrorists, fascists and drug traffickers. I want our best soldiers to face them,” President Gustavo Petro said in a post on Twitter.The president blamed Colombia’s most wanted fugitive Ivan Mordisco for the attack, drawing parallels between him and slain drug lord Pablo Escobar.“So far, we are reporting 14 dead and more than 38 injured, including five minors,” Cauca Governor Octavio Guzman announced on Saturday night.A police source said rescue teams were continuing to search for several people reported missing.The explosion on the Pan-American Highway damaged buses and vans, overturned several vehicles, and left a large crater on the road. The bodies of the victims were lying amid the debris, covered with sheets, and emergency teams were working at the scene.As cited by the AP, the bombing is the latest in a series of attacks targeting public infrastructure, with at least 26 incidents recorded in southwestern Colombia over the past two days.These include a shooting at a police station in the rural area of Jamundi and an attack on a civil aviation radar facility in El Tambo, where authorities intercepted and defused three explosives-laden drones earlier Saturday.Defense Minister Pedro Sanchez said Saturday that authorities had increased military and police deployment in affected areas.Colombia has long battled armed groups that finance their operations through drug trafficking, illegal mining and extortion and often try to influence elections through violence. Dissident factions of the FARC, which rejected the 2016 peace accord, have also been accused of attempting to derail stalled peace efforts under President Gustavo Petro.Security has emerged as a central issue ahead of the May 31 presidential election, with political violence again in the spotlight last June when conservative leader Miguel Uribe Turbay was shot in broad daylight while campaigning in the capital Bogotá.
