Colombian Leader Vows to Strike Back

President Alvaro Uribe vowed Saturday to strike back at leftist rebels he blamed for bomb attacks that apparently were aimed at national lawmakers and injured at least 23 people -- including a prominent senator.

An explosion shortly before midnight Friday on the 30th-floor restaurant of the Tequendama Residences during a tango show injured 22 people and blew out windows, showering glass onto a boulevard below. The bomb was hidden inside a suitcase and detonated by remote control. The hotel is frequently used by lawmakers.

Authorities were searching for a man and woman in their 20s suspected of carrying the bomb into the restaurant, Bogota Police Chief Gen. Hector Castro told reporters.

Three hours earlier, a bomb disguised as a Christmas present exploded in the Bogota office of Sen. German Vargas Lleras as he was opening the package.

Vargas, a member of Uribe’s governing coalition, suffered minor injuries to his hands. The senator has frequently denounced leftist rebels fighting in Colombia’s 38-year civil conflict.

Uribe said the attacks targeted legislators and blamed the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. The president said the FARC may have used training from the armed Basque separatist group ETA and Northern Ireland’s IRA to carry out the attacks.

“We’re going to insist on more action from the armed forces and demand more information from all Colombians,” Uribe said. “We’re going to defeat these people.”

The residential hotel in the heart of the capital is on Bogota’s 7th Avenue, which is lined with stores and museums. Lawmakers from outlying provinces often stay there when Congress is in session, as it is now.

The normally combative Congress has in recent days shown support for Uribe, approving a referendum on a plan to stem political corruption and authorizing the president to oversee peace talks with right-wing paramilitary groups.

The FARC, whose fighters were blamed for an assassination attempt on Uribe that killed innocent bystanders during the presidential campaign, has accused the president of being a dictator and of planning to surrender control of Colombia to the United States.

Uribe promised to battle the rebels during the campaign. A recent Gallup poll put his approval rating at 74%.