Colombia’s Petro says explosives used in deadly highway attack may have come from Ecuador

Colombian President Gustavo Petro has ordered investigators to determine whether explosives used in a deadly bombing on the Pan-American Highway entered Colombia from Ecuador, adding a cross-border dimension to one of the country’s worst civilian attacks in decades.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro

“I asked investigators to determine whether the explosives used in the attack on the Pan-American Highway came from Ecuador,” Petro said, according to the EFE news service.

The April 25 bombing in Cajibío, in Colombia’s Cauca department, killed 21 people and injured 56. The attack hit the El Túnel sector of the Pan-American Highway, a critical road corridor in southwestern Colombia, and destroyed vehicles traveling through the area.

The bombing came during a broader wave of violence before Colombia’s May 31 presidential election. Authorities reported at least 26 rebel attacks in the southwest, including strikes in Cauca and Valle del Cauca, regions where armed groups fight for control of cocaine routes and illegal mining corridors.

Petro blamed dissident factions of the FARC, especially structures tied to the FARC-EMC, a group led by Iván Mordisco that rejected the 2016 peace agreement. The president compared Mordisco to Pablo Escobar and called the attack a terrorist act.

Defense Minister Pedro Sánchez also identified “Marlon” as a key suspect and announced a reward of 5 billion Colombian pesos, about $1.4 million, for information leading to his capture. Authorities identify “Marlon” as Iván Jacobo Idrobo Arredondo, accused of links to the dissident network blamed for the bombing.

The Ecuador angle is not new for Petro.

In March, he accused Ecuador of carrying out bombings near the border after Colombian authorities reported finding 27 charred bodies. Petro suggested the strikes may have crossed into Colombian territory, while Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa denied it.

“President Petro, your statements are false; we are acting within our territory, not yours,” Noboa said, according to Xinhua’s English report on the exchange. Noboa said Ecuador’s operations targeted “narco-terrorism” inside Ecuador.

Noboa also said the bombed sites were hideouts for groups linked to narco-terrorism, many of them Colombian. “We will continue to clean up and rebuild Ecuador,” he said, according to Reuters.