BOGOTA—Seven people were killed and 11 more injured when a passenger vehicle exploded on a highway in southeast Colombia on Feb. 17. It happened in a key drug-trafficking region where illegal armed groups vie for control, a high-ranking military official said on Tuesday.
The explosion, which is being investigated by authorities, happened late on Monday in a rural region of Colombia’s Cauca province, some 500 kilometers (300 miles) southeast of capital city Bogota.
“This was no attack. This was a passenger vehicle moving from Pasto toward Cali. It was moving when it exploded,” General Jorge Isaacs Hoyos, commander of the Colombian army’s third division, told journalists.
Those who died were thrown from the vehicle when it exploded, the general said. The explosion hit two other vehicles and forced them off the road, injuring the passengers, Hoyos said.
The region where the explosion happened is contested by guerillas of the National Liberation Army (ELN), dissidents of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), and criminal groups connected to drug trafficking. FARC has returned to arms, citing a breakdown of the 2016 peace deal—according to security sources.
The cultivation of coca leaves and the production of cocaine fuels conflict in the Andean country, which, after more than 50 years, has left 260,000 dead and millions displaced, according to the government.
The explosion happened following an escalation in attacks by the ELN in different regions of the country, where the rebels have set fire to vehicles, blocked roads, threatened citizens, and attacked army patrols.
By Luis Jaime Acosta
