The explosion occurred on Saturday along the Pan-American Highway in the troubled Cauca department, where buses and vans were badly damaged

A bomb attack on a highway in southwestern Colombia has left 19 people dead and at least 38 others injured, marking the latest surge in violence ahead of next month’s presidential election.

The explosion occurred on Saturday along the Pan-American Highway in the troubled Cauca department, where buses and vans were badly damaged.

Several vehicles were overturned by the force of the blast, which also left a large crater in the road.

While the regional governor initially reported 14 deaths and more than 38 injuries, the National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences said on Sunday that it had begun examining 19 bodies.

Military chief Hugo Lopez said the attackers blocked the road with a bus and another vehicle before detonating the bomb.

The incident comes just over a month before Colombians head to the polls to elect a successor to President Gustavo Petro.

Petro blamed the attack on Ivan Mordisco, one of the country’s most wanted criminals, whom he has compared to the late drug lord Pablo Escobar.

The bombing followed another attack on Friday at a military base in Cali, Colombia’s third-largest city, which left two people injured and triggered a wave of violence across the Valle del Cauca and Cauca regions.

According to Lopez, at least 26 attacks have been recorded in the two regions over the past two days.

Authorities have since increased military and police presence in the affected areas, Defence Minister Pedro Sanchez said.

Security remains a key issue ahead of the May 31 presidential election. Concerns intensified last June when conservative presidential frontrunner Miguel Uribe Turbay was shot in broad daylight while campaigning in the capital, Bogota, and later died from his injuries.

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