Petro Orders Ecuador Probe After Colombia Highway Bombing Kills 21 and Injures 56

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.

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

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.

That dispute explains why Petro is now asking whether the Cauca explosives came from Ecuador. Colombia's southwestern corridor connects Cauca and Nariño to the Ecuadorian border, an area long used by guerrilla dissidents, drug traffickers and arms networks. The same groups operate around cocaine production zones, Pacific trafficking routes and illegal mining areas, making explosives and weapons supply chains difficult to trace.

Ecuador has also become a major security concern in the region. Once considered safer than its neighbors, the country has faced a surge in violence tied to drug gangs, prison networks and trafficking routes used to move cocaine from Colombia and Peru toward Pacific ports. Noboa has responded with military operations and has described the fight as a campaign against "narco-terrorist groups."

For Colombia, the concern is that criminal pressure in Ecuador may be feeding violence back across the border. FARC dissident factions in Cauca and Valle del Cauca have expanded attacks as they compete for control of drug routes and territory. AP reported that the FARC-EMC remains active in the southwest and is fighting over trafficking routes and illegal mines.

The latest bombing has intensified pressure on Petro's "total peace" policy, which seeks negotiations and ceasefires with armed groups. Critics say the strategy has allowed dissident factions to regroup. Petro and his allies argue negotiations remain necessary, while also calling for military and judicial action against those behind civilian attacks.

The investigation now has two tracks: identifying who carried out the bombing and tracing where the explosives came from. Petro's order places Ecuador back inside Colombia's security debate, not as a confirmed source of the attack, but as part of a disputed border zone where guerrilla networks, drug trafficking and state military operations increasingly overlap.