Blast Demolishes Wall Near U.S. Envoy’s Home in Chile

A dynamite blast demolished a wall next door to the U.S. ambassador’s residence early today, cracking two of the residence’s windows and injuring a neighbor.

“First I thought it was an earthquake, but when the shaking didn’t continue I realized what had happened,” U.S. Ambassador Harry G. Barnes Jr. said after being awakened by the 6:25 a.m. bombing. He said no one in the sprawling hilltop residence was injured.

However, the explosion of an estimated 1 3/4 pounds of dynamite shattered windows throughout a 15-story apartment building across the street. A Chilean woman who had been sleeping near a window was cut on the face, neighbors said.

The bomb exploded a block from the entrance to the ambassador’s residence, where two Chilean policemen were on foot patrol. Barnes said they saw no one plant the explosives.

The blast knocked down a lamppost and 18 feet of a concrete wall surrounding the Los Leones Golf Club. The wall was felled at the point where it adjoins the embassy property.

No one claimed responsibility for the bombing, the first to damage the U.S. ambassador’s residence in three years of sporadic attacks by Marxist guerrilla groups opposed to Chile’s military government.