Toll Rises to 32 in Bogota Blast

As the death toll rose to 32 in this country’s worst urban bombing in decades, Colombians struggled Saturday to confront the reality of an increasingly violent guerrilla war focused in cities.

Friday’s car bombing of Colombia’s most exclusive private club -- a symbol of the wealthy ruling class -- staggered the nation. The dead included rich and poor, young and old, businessmen and bartenders. Six children were killed. More than 160 people were wounded.

The attack drove home the fact that Colombia’s nearly 4-decade-long civil war has shifted decisively from forgotten backwaters to urban centers of power, where elites have long enjoyed a certain immunity from the conflict.

“This is terrifying, something without precedent in Colombia,” said Antonio Navarro Wolf, a senator and former leftist guerrilla. “Here we have lived through all types of violence, but never anything like this.”

President Bush condemned the bombing, joining a chorus of world leaders.

“We stand with the Colombian people in their fight against narco-terrorists who threaten their democratic way of life,” Bush said Saturday. “We will offer all appropriate assistance to the Colombian government in bringing to justice the murderers responsible for this act.”

There was little doubt that the bombing marked a new phase of the war. Both U.S. and Colombian authorities blamed the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known by its Spanish initials, FARC. There were no arrests by late Saturday.

After concentrating its attacks on remote army bases and village police stations for most of its 39-year history, the FARC has recently begun to carry out bombings in urban centers.

FARC members are blamed for a sophisticated homemade mortar attack during President Alvaro Uribe’s inauguration in August that left 14 dead after one shell went astray and hit a poor neighborhood near the presidential palace in Bogota, the capital.

The group also has been blamed for launching mortars in November that landed near the U.S. Embassy and for placing a suitcase bomb at an upscale hotel in December. Police claim to have prevented dozens of other bombing attempts in the last few months with raids in the poor southern sections of Bogota.

But Friday night’s attack on Club El Nogal represented a leap in both technology and destructive force. After touring the site, the nation’s attorney general said the guerrillas must have received help from more experienced international terrorist groups to pull off such a bombing, which involved at least 440 pounds of explosives.

Three Irishmen with ties to the Irish Republican Army -- which has fought British rule in Northern Ireland -- are on trial in Bogota on charges of teaching the FARC how to construct mortar and car bombs.

The last time the capital experienced such violence was in 1993, when drug lord Pablo Escobar unleashed a series of car bombs against the government. More than 50 people were killed in several months, but no single attack left more than 20 dead, and none of the bombs approached the power of Friday’s blast.

It was unclear Saturday what type of explosive was used, but authorities suspected a mixture of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil, which was used in the Oklahoma City bombing.

“These explosives had a high power of destruction. This is terrorism with international links,” said Atty. Gen. Luis Camilo Osorio.

Speculation centered on the FARC not only because of the group’s growing use of car bombs, but also because of a mysterious message on a Web site that often publishes FARC communiques.

The note, by a previously unheard-of group, Notipaco, criticized a referendum pushed by Uribe that would concentrate power in the executive branch to better fight the war.

“We will see you on the seventh at six,” ended the note, which was posted Thursday. The bombing happened at 8 p.m. on Feb. 7.

The bomb exploded as activity at the club kicked into high gear, with perhaps 1,000 people inside. Children were having a birthday party on one floor. Businessmen were unwinding at a bar on another.

The club is an almost-mythic symbol of Colombia’s oligarchy, a redoubt for the capital’s richest families and businessmen. Memberships start at $25,000. There are squash courts, restaurants, bars and even a golf driving range in the 13-story building.

On Saturday, the aura of invincibility was gone. The fortress-like exterior was stained black with smoke. The blast had blown out two floors of the windowless, red-brick facade, leaving the building looking like a heavyweight fighter with several teeth missing.

The attack was all the more audacious for the security that surrounded the club. Not even bodyguards were allowed inside. Access was controlled through individual cards. Some people speculated that someone in the club must have given access to the bombers, who parked the car in a third-floor parking lot.