At least 19 explosive blasts rocked southwest Colombia, bringing further terror to a nation still reeling from the attempted assassination of a presidential candidate days earlier. A bomb on a motorcycle detonated Tuesday near a police station in Cali, the nation’s third-biggest city, among other attacks. Police said the violence has left at least four dead. Defense Minister Pedro Sánchez blamed the attacks on a warlord known as Iván Mordisco, who President Gustavo Petro also accused of involvement in the assassination plot against the candidate, who was gunned down Saturday at a rally in Bogotá. The victim, Senator Miguel Uribe Turbay, remains in critical condition with a gunshot wound to his head. Petro also pointed the finger at a global crime syndicate he said extends from Dubai, Italy and Albania to Ecuador. “There are very strong indications that have reached high-ranking opposition leaders and us that the perpetrator of the attack is the international mafia,” Petro said late Monday on social media, without providing details. The bomb blasts and the attempted assassination are the latest signs that Colombia’s security situation is spinning out of control, a little more than a year before Petro must leave office. Illegal armed groups such as Mordisco’s continue to expand, while cocaine production rose to a record last year.

Full report : At least 7 killed in explosions and attacks outside police stations in southwest Colombia.