Colombia offers record bounty for man accused of ordering bomb attack

World Colombia offers record bounty for man accused of ordering bomb attack that killed 21 By Frank Andrews Frank Andrews Journalist Frank Andrews is a CBS News journalist based in London. Read Full Bio Frank Andrews April 28, 2026 / 9:41 AM EDT / CBS News Add CBS News on Google Colombia is offering a record 1.4 million U.S. dollars reward for information leading to the arrest of the man accused of ordering an attack that killed 21 people Saturday and wounded dozens more.The country's defense minister, Pedro Sanchez, said Iván Jacob Idrobo Arredondo, also known as "Marlon," was behind the bombing of a motorway in the Cauca region, in the country's southwest, as well as several other nearby attacks. The explosion Saturday killed at least 15 women on the busy motorway, according to the governor of Cauca, Octavio Guzmán, leaving behind the twisted metal debris of multiple vehicles by a 650-foot crater in the road. Red Cross workers operate at the site of an explosion as people look on after a bomb attack at El Tunel, on the Popayan-Cali road, in Cajibio, Cauca department, Colombia, on April 25, 2026. JOAQUIN SARMIENTO /AFP via Getty Images Guzmán said the bombing was the "most brutal and ruthless attack [in the region] against the civilian population in decades."In a video on Sanchez's Facebook page, in which the defense minister looked down on the site of the attack from a helicopter, he described Marlon as "demented" and "a terrorist" who killed "humble people who were only seeking the best."He added they would do "everything necessary" so "this doesn't happen again."The bomb was detonated after attackers blocked traffic with a bus and another vehicle, the head of the country's armed forces, Hugo López, said in a press conference Saturday. The country's president, Gustavo Petro, described the attackers as "terrorists" and "fascists" in a post on X, adding, "I want our very best soldiers to confront them." Relatives mourn by the coffin of Daniela Valencia Holguin, a fatal victim of a highway bombing in Cajibio, Cauca department, Colombia, on April 27, 2026. JOAQUIN SARMIENTO /AFP via Getty Images Saturday's bombing was one of 26 targeting public infrastructure in the Valle del Cauca and Cauca regions in two days, according to López. It comes with armed violence a central issue in the run-up to Colombia's presidential election on May 31.Marlon is part of an armed group led by Colombia's most wanted man, Iván Mordisco. Described by Petro as a "drug trafficker dressed as a revolutionary," Mordisco runs the Central General Staff, one of several dissident offshoots of the now-defunct Marxist-Leninist guerrilla organization the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.A 2016 accord between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known by its Spanish acronym FARC, saw some 7,000 rebels disarm, but Mordisco, whose real name is Néstor Gregorio Vera Fernández, was one of the 2,000 or so self-styled rebels who refused to lay down their arms. Saturday's bombing was one of the deadliest in Colombia since the FARC killed 36 people in the bombing of a Bogotá night club in 2003. Red Cross workers carry an injured person on a stretcher after a bomb attack at El Tunel, on the Popayan-Cali road, in Cajibio, Cauca department, Colombia, on April 25, 2026. JOAQUIN SARMIENTO /AFP via Getty Images Another of the FARC dissident groups, the National Liberation Army, killed 21 people on a police academy campus in 2019.Last August, Mordisco's…

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