Bomb Wrecks Colombia Paper, Kills 4
BOGOTA, Colombia — A car bomb wrecked the Vanguardia Liberal newspaper building in northeastern Colombia on Monday and killed four employees of the paper, which had joined in a condemnation of cocaine barons.
The newspaper’s publisher blamed drug traffickers for the bombing in Bucaramanga, a city of 400,000 people 175 miles north of Bogota. He said he did not know whether the paper, which is the main daily of northeastern Colombia, could continue publishing.
“Although I can’t identify the perpetrators, I can say that, basically, they are the same group of drug traffickers that have carried out these types of attacks in the past,†Alejandro Galvis Ramirez said in a radio interview.
Four journalists were assassinated by unidentified gunmen last week in Medellin and Monterria.
Drug traffickers claimed responsibility for killing two of the journalists, both from El Espectador, a crusader against the drug gangs.
Col. Jorge Ernest Ferrero, a police commander in the city, said that the explosion brought down the roof of the three-story building and severely damaged computers, printing equipment and administrative and editorial offices.
Ferrero said 15 houses were damaged, some three blocks away, and three homes facing the newspaper building were destroyed.
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