Bus bombing kills 13 in Colombia amid wave of attacks

A bus carrying passengers on the Pan-American Highway was ripped apart in Colombia’s southwest, turning one of the country’s most important commercial corridors into the latest symbol of how insecurity is spilling into everyday travel. At least 13 people were killed and 38 injured in the attack in El Túnel, in Cajibio, about 35 kilometers from Popayán, as violence swept across Cauca and neighboring Valle del Cauca.

Cauca health authorities said five of the injured were children. The death toll was first reported lower, then climbed as officials worked through the aftermath of the blast, a sign of how chaotic the scene was on a road that normally carries passengers, freight and regional commerce through a part of the country long shaped by armed groups and drug trafficking routes.

Gen. Hugo López said 26 attacks were recorded in Cauca and Valle del Cauca over the previous two days, a coordinated wave that reached far beyond the bus bombing. Earlier incidents included a shooting at a police station in Jamundí, attacks on a civil aviation radar facility in El Tambo, where authorities took down three explosives-laden drones, and bombings near military units in Cali and Palmira. A Friday bomb attack on a military base in Cali injured two people and appears to have helped set off the broader surge.

President Gustavo Petro condemned the attackers as “terrorists, fascists, and drug traffickers.” Defense Minister Pedro Sánchez was leading a security delegation in Palmira when the bus exploded, alongside regional governors and local authorities, underscoring how quickly the crisis had escalated from a military problem to a civilian one.

Authorities and reporting linked the violence to dissident factions of the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, including the Iván Mordisco network and the Jaime Martínez faction, both of which rejected the 2016 peace accord. The pattern is especially alarming because it follows a major wave of attacks in June 2025, when coordinated bombings across southwest Colombia killed eight people and injured more than 75 in 24 attacks over five hours. This latest assault suggests the pressure campaign has not only resumed, but is now reaching deeper into the roads, towns and transport routes that keep the region moving.