Pubdate: Fri, 12 Nov 1999
Source: Houston Chronicle (TX)
Copyright: 1999 Houston Chronicle
Contact:  http://www.chron.com/
Forum: http://www.chron.com/content/hcitalk/index.html
Author: Jared Kotler, Associated Press

CAR BOMB LEAVES AT LEAST 8 DEAD IN BOGOTA

Many Suspect Drug Traffickers Behind Attack

BOGOTA, Colombia - Raising the specter of a bloody era when drug lords
sowed terror to avoid extradition to the United States, a car bomb ripped
through a Bogota commercial district Thursday, killing at least eight
people and injuring 45.

The shrapnel-packed bomb, placed in a red Mazda sedan and believed
detonated by remote control, destroyed a two-story house and a restaurant
on a wide avenue and blew out the windows of banks, stores and apartment
buildings nearly a quarter mile away.

It was the Colombian capital's worst blast since the wave of terror by the
Medellin cocaine cartel in the late 1980s and early 1990s aimed at stopping
the extradition of its members to the United States. The campaign only
ended with the cartel's 1993 demise.

The new attack came a day after the Supreme Court approved the second
handover in a week of a major alleged drug trafficker to the United States
- -- and Colombians feared it was a blunt warning to the government not to go
ahead with more than three dozen planned extraditions.

"You get the feeling the wolf is raising its ears again," said Miguel Maza,
a former head of the state security agency. Maza headed the agency in 1989,
when a bomb placed by traffickers leveled its headquarters, killing 80
employees in the single most devastating attack of the era.

Colombia is the world's No. 1 cocaine exporter and a growing heroin supplier.

U.S. officials have pressured Colombian authorities to extradite drug
kingpins for trial in the United States, where they face stiffer sentences.

This violent country's leaders have traditionally been loath to do so and
there has not been an extradition for nine years. But President Andres
Pastrana pledged to resume handovers after his election last year, hoping
for U.S. support in confronting the illegal drug trade and leftist rebels.

Hours after Thursday's explosion, Pastrana responded by defiantly signing a
decree hours later that would extradite to the United States an accused
Colombian drug lord.

In Washington, National Security Council spokesman Mike Hammer said: "We
condemn violent acts such as this latest incident in Colombia."

Justice Minister Romulo Gonzalez said it was still too early to blame
"narcoterrorism" for the 10:15 a.m. blast -- which sent shards of metal and
glass in all directions.

Six people died at the scene, two others at hospitals and 14 people were
hospitalized in serious condition, said city health official Dr. Adriana
Ortegon.

A burned and bleeding woman was pulled from beneath the skeleton of a
parked car thrown by the blast. Another woman was found face up on the
sidewalk in a pool of blood. A taxi driver who survived the explosion sat
shell-shocked in his badly damaged vehicle, his face bloodied, a few feet
from ground zero.

Martha di Iannini had just walked into her luxury furniture store when the
bomb went off 50 feet away. It blew open the store's front window and
flipped over furniture.

"It was a frightening explosion," she said.

The bomb, made of an estimated 150 pounds of explosives, left a 3-foot deep
crater in the sidewalk along the upscale Pepe Sierra Avenue. Sirens wailed
and helicopters circled overhead as bomb squad technicians scoured a wide
area for clues.

Maza, the former security chief, said the bombing was identical to many of
the indiscriminate attacks -- in schools, at shopping centers and in public
squares -- that terrorized Colombia before the 1993 death of Medellin
cartel boss Pablo Escobar ended the violent campaign.

Colombians "will not be intimidated by acts of violence," a shaken Bogota
Mayor Enrique Penalosa said.

Venezuelan Jose Fernando Flores and Colombian heroin suspect Jaime Orlando
Lara is scheduled to be the first of 42 jailed alleged drug bosses
extradited to stand trial before U.S. courts.

Also facing possible extradition is Fabio Ochoa, a former Medellin cartel
leader arrested Oct. 13 along with 29 other Colombians. Ochoa faces a U.S.
indictment for his alleged role in a smuggling empire said to have exported
as much as 30 tons of cocaine a month.

Colombia halted extraditions in 1991 but moved to allow them in December
1997 because of intense U.S. pressure.

"Innocent people always pay the price for extradition," said Jason
Grisales, 25, a waiter at a hamburger restaurant on the same block as
Thursday's blast.

Though rarely targeted at civilians, there have been recent bombings across
Colombia, mired in a nearly 40-year guerrilla conflict. Banks, police
stations and army posts have been attacked frequently.

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