Four dead as Colombia hit with wave of bombings and gun attacks
Police said attackers launching 19 attacks on targets in Cali – the country's third largest city – and several nearby towns, hitting police posts, municipal buildings and civilian targets.
National Police chief Carlos Fernando Triana said assailants had attacked targets with car bombs, motorcycle bombs, rifle fire and a suspected drone.
'There are two police officers dead, and a number of members of the public are also dead,' he said.
Police later said at least two civilians were among those killed, and 12 others were injured.
In Cali and the towns of Villa Rica, Guachinte and Corinto, AFP journalists witnessed the tangled wreckage of vehicles surrounded by scorched debris.
The assaults came days after the attempted assassination of a presidential candidate in Bogotá put the country on edge.
Many Colombians are fearful of a return to the violence of the 1980s and 1990s, when cartel attacks, guerrilla violence and political assassinations were commonplace.
In the town of Corinto, resident Luz Amparo was at home when the blast gutted her bakery.
'We thought it was an earthquake,' she told AFP. 'My husband said: 'No, they are shooting.''
Her phone began to ring off the hook, and she went to her check on her store. As she rounded the corner the neighbors began to look in her direction.
'Everything was levelled,' she said.
Police and experts blamed Tuesday's attacks on a dissident faction of the once-powerful Farc guerrilla group.
Security expert Elizabeth Dickenson of the International Crisis Group said the attacks were likely the work of a group known as the Central General Staff (EMC).
'This is a particularly well-coordinated offensive. It really demonstrates the capacity that the group has built' she told AFP.
'And I think very alarmingly it demonstrates their ability to conduct operations in the metropolitan area of Cali.'
Dickenson said the group may be trying to stop an ongoing military operation that is reported to have injured or killed the group's veteran leader, known as 'Iván Mordisco'.
'They are trying to raise the cost of that military initiative for the government,' said Dickenson.
In a statement on Tuesday, the EMC warned the public to stay away from military and police installations, but stopped short of claiming responsibility.
The attacks come three days after conservative senator Miguel Uribe, 39, was shot twice in the head at close range by an alleged hitman while campaigning in Bogota.
That attack has stunned Colombians, prompted speculation about who was responsible and raised questions about Gustavo Petro's response.
Petro has speculated on social media that the hit was ordered by an international 'mafia' and to claim that Uribe's security detail was suspiciously reduced the day he was shot.
On Tuesday a 15-year-old pleaded not guilty to carrying out the attempted assassination. The government believes he was a hired gun.
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Upon his release, police said in 2024 that Wedding allegedly went back to trafficking and built his 'prolific and ruthless organization.' How long he can stay hidden remains an open question. In the meantime, all his family can do is wonder what happened to the promising young athlete they once knew. 'You can have every opportunity and still take the wrong path,' his mom said in 2009. 'But it doesn't mean you're a bad person.' Sixteen years later, the FBI disagrees. 'Wedding went from shredding powder on the slopes at the Olympics to distributing powder cocaine on the streets,' Assistant Director of the FBI's LA Field Office, Akil Davis, said in March 2025.
