The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights called on illegal armed groups to "cease any attack against the civilian population," while Leo XIV urged "to reject any form of violence and decisively opt for the path of peace." In addition, authorities have captured the main suspect in the explosive attack that killed 21 people in southwestern Colombia, an attack for which FARC dissidents acknowledged responsibility and attributed it to a "tactical error."

First modification: 04/29/2026 - 20:52 Last modification: 04/30/2026 - 04:29

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The devastating images of the attack that occurred on the Pan-American Highway, near the rural area of ​​Cajibío, in the department of Cauca, have returned Colombia to a state of shock and pain due to a violence that it cannot leave behind.

And the attack with explosives that caused the death of 21 people – mostly peasants – is the worst against civilians since the signing of the Peace Agreements between the Colombian Government and the former FARC guerrilla almost a decade ago.

It is to the dissidents of that extinct organization that the authorship of this massacre – which also caused 56 injuries – and of more than thirty violent acts with explosives and drones perpetrated over the weekend, in the departments of Cauca and Valle del Cauca, in the southwest of the South American country, are attributed.

Faced with this upsurge in violence, international condemnation has not been long in coming and, this Wednesday, April 29, both the UN and Pope Leo XIV expressed similar messages.

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In a statement, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights reiterated its "condemnation of the direct and indiscriminate attacks against the civilian population" and reinforced its call to "non-state armed groups to respect International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and to cease any attacks against the civilian population."

Likewise, he urged the State to strengthen its presence "throughout the territory", to reinforce prevention tools, to "guarantee effective investigations" and to provide "all pertinent attention to victims in humanitarian and psychosocial matters."

For his part, in the framework of a general audience in St. Peter's Square, Pope Leo XIV expressed his "pain and concern" for the "tragic situation of violence that afflicts the southwestern region of Colombia" and expressed his "closeness in prayer to the victims and their families."

Likewise, the Supreme Pontiff urged "everyone to reject any form of violence and decisively opt for the path of peace."

Their message is in line with what was expressed by the Episcopal Conference of Colombia days ago, when in a statement they urged armed groups "to immediately cease all acts that threaten life, to comply with the principles of international humanitarian law and to treat the population humanely."

"Persisting in violence only deepens the suffering of the people and destroys the social fabric," they stressed.

Read alsoEscalation of attacks in Colombia: how much are tensions increasing weeks before the elections?

They capture the main suspect in the attack

While eleven of the victims who lived in that town were buried in the village of La Pedregosa on Tuesday, the Colombian authorities announced the arrest of the person they consider the "main person responsible" for the massacre.

This is José Alex Vitoncó, alias 'Mi Pez', who was arrested in a joint operation by the Police and the Army in the village Tablones, in the rural area of ​​Palmira, located in the department of Valle del Cauca.

According to security agencies, Vitoncó is accused of being one of the intellectual authors of the attack and the "top leader" of the local structure of the so-called Central General Staff (EMC), the main dissident of the former FARC, which is led at the national level by alias Iván Mordisco, the most wanted man in Colombia.

In his X account, President Gustavo Petro highlighted the arrest of "the person responsible for the murder of 21 people in the terrorist action committed in Cajibío."

Meanwhile, his Minister of Defense, Pedro Sánchez Suárez, accused the detainee of being "one of the main people responsible for orchestrating the massacre of peasants, women, children and social leaders in the southwest of the country, and the main leader of one of the most dangerous structures in the north of Cauca."

Named from the beginning by the government as the author of the attack, the EMC admitted on Tuesday night its "political responsibility" for what it described as a "tactical error" within the framework of an alleged failed maneuver against the Army, an act that "has no justification whatsoever."

However, the violent acts do not stop and this Wednesday, the Colombian Army claimed to have thwarted "a terrorist action by locating and neutralizing an explosive device" located "at a frequent transit point for the civilian population" in the town of Argelia (Cauca).

Read alsoColombia: attack with explosives in Cauca leaves several victims and injuries

Violence strains presidential campaign

The upsurge in violence, especially after the deadly attack in Cajibío, has flooded the campaign ahead of the presidential elections on May 31 and has become an element of cross accusations between the candidates.

For Sergio Guzmán, a political risk analyst in Bogotá, the wave of attacks would be precisely a way in which alias Iván Mordisco would seek to show his capacity to cause damage and "strengthen his credibility" before the next Colombian government.

"Part of what they are doing is generating influence for the future," Guzmán told the AP agency, referring to possible negotiations.

That hypothesis was also raised by President Gustavo Petro, who on Monday assured that the armed groups "obey the drug trafficking junta" and, therefore, "I am not surprised that the Cauca groups are trying to sabotage elections."

"They want to sabotage the elections so that the extreme right wins out of fear and they use their drug trafficking fronts. It is a hypothesis to be confirmed but increasingly narrower," he asserted.

Along these lines, the official candidate Iván Cepeda – who is competing because the Colombian Constitution does not allow re-election – considered "deeply worrying that these terrorist actions occur in southern regions of the country where there is broad citizen support for our political project."

"A legitimate concern arises about whether, in addition to causing harm and anxiety in the population, these events seek to generate a climate of fear that favors the interests of extreme right sectors determined to destabilize the country and hinder the democratic development of the electoral process," he said in a statement on Sunday, in which he also expressed his "strongest rejection of these barbaric acts."

From the opposition, on the other hand, the uptick in violence is one more reason to criticize the government. The conservative candidate, Paloma Valencia, traveled to Cali, capital of Valle del Cauca, to, in her words, be "with the people who are afraid, who mourn their relatives, who need to feel calm again" and reproached the fact that President Petro has not visited the area.

Likewise, Valencia – who denounced an alleged plan by armed groups to attack him, about which the Ministry of Defense assured that there is no evidence – maintained that "the violence comes from the dissidents of the FARC and the ELN (protected by the total peace of Cepeda and Petro)", who "are now conveniently classified as extreme right."

Along the same lines, the far-right Abelardo de la Espriella, who according to recent polls is ranked second behind Cepeda in voting intention, stated on Tuesday that "Cauca and Valle del Cauca are flooded with the blood of unarmed citizens, murdered by the terrorism bombs that Iván Cepeda and Petro have protected," and accused the official candidate of being "cynical" for pointing out "to confuse and defend the authors of this barbarism."

Read alsoColombia: attack on the Pan-American Highway and security challenges before the elections

With EFE, AP, AFP and local media

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