1 Killed, 48 Hurt in Bombing at Colombia Politician’s Home

A powerful car bomb rocked a residential district in the northwestern city of Medellin early Monday, killing a woman and injuring at least 48 people, police said.

About 120 pounds of dynamite packed into a minibus blew up outside the house of Juan Gomez Martinez, a regional newspaper executive and former provincial governor.

The Colombian government said it suspected drug cartels were behind the blast. President Ernesto Samper vowed not to bow to terrorist violence from drug traffickers.

“We will not allow the specter of narco-terrorism to return to this country and intimidate us,” he told reporters. “The state will combat these acts of violence head-on.”

Five unidentified gunmen, one of them a woman, opened fire on private security guards near Gomez’s home before the bomb went off about 5:30 a.m., Medellin police chief Gen. Alfredo Salgado said.

He said three houses were destroyed and 15 were seriously damaged by the explosion. Other reports said 13 commercial buildings were damaged.

The dead woman was identified as Lucia Cevallos de Bernal, 60, who lived nearby. Gomez was out of town, but one of his three sons was injured. At least four other people were hospitalized.

The attack came four days after the Colombian Congress approved a tough new law to strip Colombia’s cocaine barons of their multibillion-dollar fortunes. Those gains are estimated at $2.5 billion nationwide.

Gomez is a member of the opposition Social Conservative Party and co-owner of the regional newspaper El Colombiano. The paper has its headquarters in Medellin, once home to the world’s most powerful cocaine cartel.

A onetime mayor of Medellin, Gomez has vigorously backed recent moves against drug traffickers. In January, he stepped down as transport minister along with two other Cabinet members to protest Samper’s alleged links to drug lords.

Gomez said Monday that he had not received threats before the bombing but that his sister, El Colombiano’s editorial director, said the paper had been threatened.

“I think this was the work of a faction of drug traffickers” who are afraid of having their assets seized, national police chief Gen. Rosso Jose Serrano said.

But Gomez’s newspaper recently printed an interview with the leader of a feared right-wing death squad whose main target is leftist rebels and their supporters. And a few hours after the blast, an unknown group calling itself the Special Anti-Paramilitary Commando issued a communique declaring war on paramilitary groups.