In the Southwest of Colombia there have been 19 Attacks

At least eight people died Tuesday in a violent offensive in southwestern Colombia, where 19 bomb attacks and armed attacks rocked the departments of Cauca and Valle del Cauca, authorities reported.  The Ministry of Defense described the attacks as “a desperate reaction by illegal armed groups to the force’s sweeping operations, which have devastated their illicit structures and economies.”  A total of seven attacks were recorded in Valle del Cauca and twelve in Cauca, claiming the lives of two police officers.

One was killed by a sniper in the municipality of Caloto and another by a bus bomb at the Villa Rica toll booth.  Dissidents of the now-defunct FARC, the heirs of paramilitary groups, and the National Liberation Army (ELN), the largest leftist guerrilla group active in the country, are present in these departments.  There were also several car bomb explosions in the municipalities of Corinto and El Bordo. Initially, it was reported that there were no casualties. However, medical reports ultimately confirmed the death of a 32-year-old woman and damage to public buildings, homes, and police stations.

Five Dead in Cali and Jamundí

In the department of Valle del Cauca, five people died in three different locations in Cali, the department’s capital: one in the Meléndez neighborhood, another in the Los Mangos sector, and three civilians in the hamlet of Guachinte, in the municipality of Jamundí.  These explosions occurred after bombs were detonated on motorcycles and road barriers, according to local authorities.  In total, the attacks left more than 40 people injured in different municipalities of the two departments and were attributed to FARC dissidents led by alias “Iván Mordisco,” one of the main commanders of the Central General Staff (EMC), the most powerful faction of the FARC dissidents. 

The Cali-based Fundación Valle del Lili clinic, which received 21 injured patients—eight of them in critical condition—also warned that it faces 300% overcrowding in its emergency department and asked the government to activate the high-complexity network, prompting the Valle del Cauca Health Secretariat to issue an orange alert.  “Given the magnitude of the events, the Ministry of Health has issued a hospital alert to the entire public and private hospital system in the city, activating blood banks and special patient transport, with the goal of ensuring adequate care for those affected,” the agency said in a statement.

Reactions and Political Tension

Interior Minister Armando Benedetti described the attacks as “cowardly acts.”  On his X account, he wrote: “It is time to surround the public forces, our soldiers and police, who are the ones who guarantee the security of Colombians.”  The violent event occurred on the eve of Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s visit to Cali this Wednesday to participate in a demonstration called by unions in support of his proposal to call a referendum by decree to approve the labor reform rejected by the Senate.  This wave of violence also occurs amid rising political tensions and armed violence in several regions of the country, where illegal armed groups operate and fight for territorial control, especially in the southwest because it is an outlet to the Pacific Ocean.

At least two dead and 36 injured in bomb explosion in the Colombian city of Cali.  One of the bombs, apparently attached to a motorcycle, was detonated in the Meléndez neighborhood, and the other in Manuela Beltrán.  Forensic experts work around the Meléndez neighborhood police station where an attack occurred.