Gunman Opens Fire at Medellin Airport; 2 Die

The terrorism afflicting Colombia intensified again Monday when a man disguised as a soldier fired an automatic rifle indiscriminately at the crowded airport in Medellin, the center of the country’s massive drug-production region. Two people died and at least 12 were wounded.

While no one immediately claimed responsibility, police said they had no doubt that the attack was part of the all-out war declared by drug cartels against the government’s drive to close down Colombia’s multibillion-dollar narcotics business.

The Medellin violence came less than 24 hours after the cartel evidently widened its war to target the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration with the firebombing of a DEA C-123K reconnaissance plane that was undergoing repairs at Monteria, northwest of the capital of Bogota.

The plane, which was forced to land in Colombia last month after mechanical problems on a flight from Peru to Oklahoma, was virtually destroyed by fire after a bomb exploded Sunday, a police spokesman said in an interview from Monteria.

In Medellin, National Police Col. Luis Canejo said that a man appearing to be in his early 20s drove to the city’s main airport about 7:15 a.m., just two hours after a curfew had been lifted.

Clearing the first line of security, apparently because he was dressed in the camouflage fatigues of the Colombian army, the man walked toward a line of about 20 passengers waiting outside the terminal for their luggage to be searched before the morning’s first flight to Bogota.

When airport police challenged him, Canejo said, the man raised an Israeli-made Galil automatic assault rife and “began firing indiscriminately . . . throughout the building.”

As panic swept the airport, police returned the fire. When it was all over--just minutes had passed, the colonel said--nine civilians and three police officers lay wounded on the floor. Two people were killed, including the presumed terrorist, who had at least eight bullet wounds.

Paid Killer Suspected

According to a Bogota radio station, the other fatality was an employee of a Medellin paint company that was the target of a major bombing last week. Police, however, said the man’s death appeared to be unconnected to his employer.

Another police officer, Luz Amria Correa, said that while the attacker was unidentified, there was no doubt that he was a “ sicario, “ a paid killer working for the Medellin drug cartel, reputedly the largest narcotics ring in the world.

The terminal, which is about 15 miles from Medellin, was immediately closed for most of the morning as rumors spread through the frightened city that several car bombs had been located at the airfield. No explosives were found.

However, Medellin Mayor Juan Gomez Martinez reinstated the original curfew of 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. Monday had been the first day of a relaxed curfew, shortened to 11 p.m. to 5 a.m.

At the same time, security at Bogota’s El Dorado airport was severely tightened, with all passengers having to submit to a personal and luggage search before entering the terminal.

Besides the airport attack, two powerful bombs exploded in Medellin in Monday’s early hours, destroying several structures in an industrial section of the city.

At least 25 major explosions have been set off in Colombia, most of them in Medellin, since the government and the cartels declared war on each other following the Aug. 18 murder of Luis Carlos Galan, whose strident anti-drug campaign had made him the favorite to win next year’s presidential election.

Increasingly, the traffickers’ tactics have assumed the form of near-indiscriminate terror against the population.

But even when a specific enemy of the cartels is targeted, innocent passers-by are usually the victims. The overwhelming majority of the people hurt in the Saturday bombing of Bogota’s anti-drug crusading newspaper, El Espectador, were passengers on two buses that happened to be in the area when a huge truck-bomb was detonated.

The growth of terrorism by the cartels matches the initial arrival of what is expected to be $65 million in American military equipment to help Colombia fight the traffickers.

After Sunday’s arrival of two C-130 transport planes, which will be used to carry troops and equipment into the heavily forested eastern regions of Colombia where the cocaine production facilities are hidden, eight A-37 American jet fighter-bombers were to have arrived Monday at the Caribbean city of Barranquilla.

The A-37s, built initially as trainers, are popular among Third World countries because they are relatively inexpensive and easy to fly. However, some drug experts here doubt they will be effective against the traffickers.

“Fighting the narcos here is the same as fighting a guerrilla war,” one official said. “You have to get them on the ground. Helicopters, even trucks are good, but jet planes are more for show.”

However, five American UH-1 Huey helicopters are supposed to land today, and the Bush Administration has promised to expedite the shipment of eight Blackhawk combat helicopters ordered separately from the drug-war aid program.

Colombian government officials expressed some bewilderment Monday over continued ambiguous references by some Americans in Washington about the stationing of U.S. troops here.

Aides to President Bush have said the Administration would consider ordering troops here to help in the drug war if they are requested, but they acknowledge no request has been made.

Colombian President Virgilio Barco Vargas has repeatedly stated that he does not want U.S. armed forces here and will not ask for them. “Why, then,” asked one Colombian presidential source, “do the Americans keep saying they have not ruled out ordering troops here?”

Although Colombia generally does not adopt the public anti-American pose common in much of Latin America, there is strong sentiment against any use of U.S. forces.

“The reason we need this help is because of the demand in the United States for drugs,” said the Colombian presidential source. “It’s not a favor to us. If there were no demand we could cope with the traffickers on our own. What we need is material, not men.”