At least six people were killed and 20 others injured when a car bomb exploded outside the mayor's office in the Colombian Pacific port city of Buenaventura [2] March 25. Gen. Freddy Padilla, the head of Colombia's armed forces, blamed the country's guerillas. "Surely this was the FARC [3]," he said. President Alvaro Uribe announced a $150,000 reward for information leading to those responsible. (AlJazeera [4], March 25)
The blast came the day after Colombian army troops rescued five local oil contractors kidnapped five days ago by FARC fighters near the Caricare oilfield in Arauca department near the Venezuelan border. The men were working for oil service companies Tuboscope and Tecnioriente, contracted by the local unit of Occidental Petroleum. (AlJazeera [5], March 25)
See our last post on Colombia [6].
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