{"id":34512,"date":"2026-08-09T12:32:02","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T07:32:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=34512"},"modified":"2026-08-09T12:32:02","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T07:32:02","slug":"a-car-bomb-attack-targets-southwest-colombia-a-day-after-conservative-president-takes-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=34512","title":{"rendered":"A car-bomb attack targets southwest Colombia a day after conservative president takes office"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/twt-thumbs.washtimes.com\/media\/image\/2026\/08\/08\/Colombia_Inauguration_54416_s1440x960.jpg?f72536d07237fdd262042ae8f5e6e6de3b865f3c\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>CALI, Colombia \u2014 A car bomb exploded Saturday in southwestern Colombia, the army said, a day after conservative political neophyte <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/abelardo-de-la-espriella\/\">Abelardo de la Espriella<\/a> was sworn in as Colombia\u2019s new president.<\/p>\n<p>The army alleged the attack was carried out by two dissident groups of the now-defunct <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/revolutionary-armed-forces-of-colombia\/\">Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia<\/a>, or FARC. The groups did not accept the peace agreement that FARC signed a decade ago with the Colombian government.<\/p>\n<p>The explosion took place at a toll plaza on the Pan-American Highway, the main road in the country\u2019s southwest. The army said two security guards suffered minor injuries in the attack. One of the guards told authorities that the explosion was caused by a vehicle that had been abandoned by an individual who fled on a motorcycle.<\/p>\n<p>The attack took place on the road connecting the departments of Cauca and Valle del Cauca, whose capital, Cali, hosted Friday\u2019s swearing-in ceremony for de la Espriella. During his inaugural speech, he outlined his security policy and warned illegal groups that \u201cthey have two paths: submit to the rule of law or confront the security forces.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The army on Saturday said on social media that soldiers were securing the area and using trained dogs to search for other explosive devices.<\/p>\n<p>Minister of Transportation Elsa Noguera condemned the attack and said work was underway to restore traffic in the area.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cColombia will not kneel before violence, nor will it allow the destruction of the infrastructure that connects our regions,\u201d she wrote on social media.<\/p>\n<aside>\n<\/aside>\n<h3>Dozens of prisoners sent to maximum security prisons<\/h3>\n<p>Also on Saturday, de la Espriella announced the transfer of 117 prisoners linked to the previous administration\u2019s peace talks to eight maximum-security prisons. The measure, according to the country\u2019s corrections agency, aims to \u201cregain permanent control of the prisons\u201d and \u201ccontain any capacity of criminal organizations\u201d to coordinate illicit activities from within prisons. De la Espriella has rejected the dialogue with armed groups promoted by his predecessor, Gustavo Petro.<\/p>\n<p>With no prior political experience, the 48-year-old de la Espriella, a lawyer and businessperson, narrowly defeated Iv\u00e1n Cepeda, a progressive senator and Petro ally, in a June runoff election in a polarized political climate.<\/p>\n<p>                        <a name=\"pagebreak\"\/><\/p>\n<p>His term begins with a robust opposition led by Petro, who refused to acknowledge his victory and insisted on alleged fraud despite the official declaration from the electoral authority and the positive assessment from international observers.<\/p>\n<div class=\"permission\" style=\"padding-top: 25px;\">\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2026 The Washington Times, LLC.\n                        <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CALI, Colombia \u2014 A car bomb exploded Saturday in southwestern Colombia, the army said, a day after conservative political neophyte Abelardo de la Espriella was sworn in as Colombia\u2019s new president. The army alleged the attack was carried out by two dissident groups of the now-defunct Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. The groups&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34513,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/twt-thumbs.washtimes.com\/media\/image\/2026\/08\/08\/Colombia_Inauguration_54416_c0-204-4894-3058_s1200x700.jpg?a5caa33fa0659cf62ff5d94db75e412210b6d599","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-hub"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34512\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/34513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}