The attack took place on the Pan-American Highway in the El Tunel area of Cajibio municipality, about 35 km (22 miles) from Popayan, the capital of Cauca province, according to authorities.
Cauca Governor Octavio Guzman said on X the attack was one of several criminal actions reported in the province on Saturday.
Fue activado un artefacto explosivo en la vía Panamericana, en el sector de El Túnel, Cajibío, en un ataque indiscriminado contra la población civil que, de manera preliminar, deja 7 civiles muertos y más de 20 heridos de gravedad. Es una tragedia que nos desgarra como… pic.twitter.com/4BQ0r6CnUc
— OCTAVIO GUZMÁN (@OctavioGuzmanGu) April 25, 2026
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“Cauca cannot continue to face this barbarity alone. We are facing a terrorist escalation that demands immediate responses. We demand forceful, sustained and effective action from the national government in the face of the grave public order crisis we are experiencing,” he added.
Presidential candidate Paloma Valencia, a member of the opposition right-wing Democratic Center party who is from Cauca, called the attack “terrorism” carried out by the dissident FARC faction, which rejected a 2016 peace deal.
“President Gustavo Petro’s government cannot continue minimizing the violence or dismantling the state,” she said. “We demand immediate action, full backing for our Armed Forces and police, and concrete results.”
Petro, a former rebel himself whose term as president is nearing an end, has pursued a “total peace” policy with guerrillas through negotiations and intermittent ceasefires.