Colombia offers record bounty for man accused of ordering bomb attack
A man known as "Marlon" is behind a wave of terror attacks in the country's southwest over the weekend, officials said, with presidential elections happening in under a month.
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.
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."