News Digest
——_- __ Edited by Victoria Ayotte
Truck bomb kills 35 in Colombia
BOGOTA, Colombia - A truck
bomb containing half a ton of dyna
mite exploded outside secret police
headquarters during the morning rush
hour Wednesday, killing at least 35
people and wounding hundreds.
The bomb, presumably the work
of drug gangs, was the most powerful
to strike the capital since Colombia’s
cocaine traffickers began a wave of
terror after the government declared
war on them 16 weeks ago.
A spokesman for President Vir
gilio Barco said the bombing might
be the start of a new campaign of
mass killings by the drug traffickers,
but that the government would fight
on.
The blast, which tore open a crater
20 feet deep and destroyed or heavily
damaged a score of buldings, oc
curred less than 24 hours after gov
ernment investigators said a bomb
caused the crash of a Colombian jet
liner last month that killed 107
people.
■ iii —™ 111
‘The slaughter that
we warned of
when the House
approved extradi
tion in the plebi
scite has started.'
—Minister Simmonds
No one claimed responsibility di
rectly for Wednesday’s explosion,
but Gen. Faruk Yanine, Bogota po
lice chief, said it was undoubtedly the
work of drug traffickers.
A statement from the so-called
Extraditables delivered to newspa
pers and radio stations in Medellin,
base of the most powerful drug cartel,
said: “We will stop the war only
when the Senate understands the
people must be our judge.”
The reference was to a bill that
would permit a national referendum
on extraditing drug trafficking sus
pends wanted in the United States.
The House of Representatives ap
proved it Tuesday night.
Barco’s government opposes the
measure, contending the drug barons
would step up terrorism before a ref
erendum to frighten voters into re
jecting extradition.
In their statement, the Extra
ditables said: “The president should
not fear what the congress decides,
because the congress is the voice of
the people, and the voice of the
people is the voice of God.”
Minister of Government Carlos
Lemos Simmonds told reporters after
the bombing: “The slaughter that we
warned of when the House approved
extradition in the plebiscite has
started.” He is acting president while
President Virgilio Barco is on a stale
visit to Japan.
The bomb went off at 7:30 a.m. in
an area crowded with people bound
for work on fool and in cars.
So powerful was the explosion
that it broke windows in a building
across the street from the U.S. Em
bassy seven miles away. The broad
cast network Caracol quoted sources
with explosives experts at the scene
as saying the truck was packed with
1,100 pounds of dynamite.
Reports on the number of dead and
wounded varied, and rescuers were
pulling bodies from the rubble of
buildings hours after the blast.
Health Minister Eduardo Diaz
said in an interview with Caracol that
at least 35 people were killed, 250
seriously wounded and 750 treated
for cuts, abrasions and shock.
Unconfirmed reports gave higher
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The explosion blew the facade off
the secret police headquarters and
destroyed virtually all its walls and
windows. Also heavily damaged
were an office building for federal
judges across the street and the na
tional transit police headquarters a
block away.
Half a dozen stores across the
street from secret police headquarters
were reduced to smoking rubble and
about 60 cars were destroyed.
Visa renewal is one function of the
secret police, or Department of
Administrative Security. Many for
eigners usually are there on any given
weekday, but it was not known
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whether foreigners were among the
dead and wounded.
This is a busy season because
many foreigners go home for Christ
mas, and cannot do so without reports
of clean police records.
Minutes after the explosion, de-'
tectives at secret police headquarters
scrambled up ladders and, from the
remains of cells, pulled two stunned
prisoners awaiting extradition to the
United Slates. The prisoners were
taken away in an armored vehicle.
Lemos said on Caracol the bomb
ing illustrated the futility of trying to
negotiate with the drug gangs. He
said the government would not lessen ,
its resolve to crush them. '
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