Violence escalates in Colombia with dozens of attacks before presidential vote

Relatives of a victim of an attack that killed at least 20 people on the Pan-American Highway, which authorities blamed on dissident former FARC rebels, cry during a funeral in Cajibio, Colombia, April 27. AP-YonhapBOGOTA — A spate of attacks against civilians and military bases in Colombia's southwestern region has raised security concerns as the country heads to a May presidential election in which crime is expected to be one of the top voter concerns.Rebel groups have staged 26 attacks with explosives and drones since Friday, including a deadly blast Saturday on a highway between the cities of Cali and Popayan, according to Colombia’s defense ministry. The death toll in that explosion rose to 21 people on Monday.Violence in the region is nothing new. Illegal groups have sought to control the area for decades, deeming it strategic for illicit activities, such as illegal mining and drug trafficking, including the cultivation of coca leaf, the raw material for cocaine.Authorities blamed a group known as the FARC-EMC for the lethal explosion, near a tunnel on the Pan-American Highway. The group is led by Nestor Vera — commonly known as Iván Mordisco — a former member of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia , known by its Spanish acronym FARC, who refused to join a 2016 peace deal with the nation’s government.Sergio Guzmán, a political risk analyst in Colombia's capital, Bogota, said that Mordisco’s group could be trying to demonstrate that it has the capabilities to do serious damage, and is seeking to “establish its credibility” with Colombia’s next government as it positions itself for future negotiations.“Part of what they are doing is establishing leverage towards the future,” Guzmán said.Under President Gustavo Petro, a former member of a guerrilla group, the Colombian government has attempted to stage peace talks with the nation’s remaining rebel groups through a strategy known as " total peace."The government has offered ceasefires to various groups in an effort to promote peace negotiations, but analysts say the strategy has failed, because these groups used the ceasefires to regroup, rearm and strengthen their grip over communities.Groups like the FARC-EMC have been known to tax residents in areas under their control, and also forcibly recruit youth into their ranks.“The government’s peace policy has been naïve,” said Javier Garay, a political science professor at Colombia’s Externado University. “They thought that if they had a condescending attitude towards these groups they would receive a positive response.”In late 2023, the FARC-EMC entered peace talks with the Colombian government. But a faction led by Mordisco abandoned the talks in April 2024, and has been fighting the Colombian government since then.Elizabeth Dickinson, a Colombia analyst at the International Crisis Group, said that Mordisco’s group is particularly strong in the provinces of Cauca and Valle del Cauca, where it's fighting for control of drug trafficking routes and illegal gold mines.For the past two years, Mordisco’s group has also used drone attacks and car bombs, to respond to an offensive from the Colombian military in the Micay Canyon, a remote area covered with coca fields that is under the FARC-EMC’s grip.Dickinson said that the latest attacks in southwest Colombia are one way for the group to show that it can sustain its “asymmetrical war” against the government.People ride motorcycles during a caravan transporting the bodies of victims of…

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