wounded. The hard-right leader campaigned on confronting "narcoterrorism without truce" and ending peace talks with armed groups. Colombia's army said FARC guerrilla dissidents used explosives to destroy a highway tollbooth near Cali, injuring two security guards. The tollbooth was under construction on the Pan-American highway in Santander de Quilichao municipality, an area controlled by rebels under Iván Morodisco, Colombia's most-wanted guerrilla commander, who leads dissidents who broke from the 2016 peace agreement.

De la Espriella condemned the bombing on social media, declaring "attacking the country's infrastructure is attacking progress". He added: "To those responsible, I send a clear message: there will be no refuge, no leniency and no impunity." Some 1,000 kilometers away, in the northern department of Cesar, an officer was killed when an explosive-equipped drone struck a police station. Authorities have not identified suspects, but the president vowed those responsible "will not go unpunished". The confrontational, first-time political leader - who openly admires Donald Trump and El Salvador's Nayib Bukele - now faces tough opposition from guerrilla groups and drug traffickers. He has promised mega-prisons like Bukele's and intensified bombing raids with support from the United States and Israel. His inauguration comes during Colombia's worst wave of violence in a decade. Years after landmark peace accords, dissident groups still dominate global cocaine production in parts of the country. Locals remain shaken. Roberto Sandoval, a firefighter living near the tollbooth, said "we are all on edge, very tense and nervous". Nearby, shattered windows left glass strewn on the bed of Sonia Zapata, a 68-year-old housewife, who said she feels "very nervous, very afraid". (Bssnews)