Pubdate: Sun, 20 May 2001
Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Copyright: 2001 San Jose Mercury News
Contact:  http://www.sjmercury.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/390
Author: Margarita Martinez, Associated Press

CAR BOMB KILLS 7 IN COLOMBIA, RECALLS DRUG LORDS' TERRORS

MEDELLIN, Colombia -- A car bombing that ripped through an upscale 
nightclub district in Colombia's second-largest city, killing seven people 
and injuring 138, has brought back memories of a terror campaign waged here 
by drug lords a decade ago.

Young business executives and college students out drinking and dancing -- 
as well as street vendors -- were among victims of the explosion Thursday 
night that sent flames into the air and shrapnel spraying in all directions 
in the city of Medellin.

Police said plastic explosives packed in a Renault sedan were detonated by 
remote control beside a park surrounded by discos and open-air cafes.

The attack was the second car bombing in two weeks in Colombia and the 
second this year in Medellin. President Andres Pastrana told the Associated 
Press it may be related to a spiraling feud between paramilitary militias 
and a Medellin-based organized-crime gang.

Pastrana flew to Medellin on Friday and planted a tree in the park where 
the bomb went off. "United, we will defeat the violent ones," he declared 
before heading into a closed-door security summit with local officials.

Armed forces chief Gen. Fernando Tapias called the bombing a "brutal and 
criminal act," and called for Congress to pass tougher anti-terrorist laws.

Police on Friday cordoned off Medellin's tree-lined El Poblado district, 
where city workers swept glass and paved over the large crater left by the 
bomb.

At the chic Cafe Orleans, where three people seated on an outdoor terrace 
were killed instantly, manager John Mario Vallejo remembered seeing a huge 
flame and then watching people scream and run in panic through a cloud of 
smoke and dust. "It was as though the atomic bomb had gone off," he said.

Among those killed at the cafe was Liliana Gonzalez, a Bogota 
brokerage-house employee who was celebrating her 30th birthday with friends 
in her native Medellin. Foreign currency trading was halted for five 
minutes Friday in her honor.

Another of the dead was Hernan Dario Restrepo, a 22-year-old man who sold 
gourmet crepes from a cart along with his girlfriend, who is hospitalized.

Six people were killed immediately, and a seventh victim died early Friday. 
The explosion blew out windows 200 yards in every direction.

Coming two weeks after a car bombing in Cali -- and three days after 
paramilitary forces abducted 200 plantation workers -- the blast 
underscored the growing insecurity in the South American country beset by 
high crime, drug trafficking and a 37-year civil war.

For the people of Medellin, it brought back chilling memories of the terror 
campaigns waged here during the 1980s and early 1990s by the Medellin 
cocaine cartel and its notorious leader, Pablo Escobar. Hundreds died in 
bombings aimed at pressuring the government against extraditing drug lords.
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