Suspected Bomb Explodes in Bogota - NYTimes

NYTimes, Reuters, Bogotá, 12/08/2010 01:51 PM ET, excerpt/extracto.-

A car bomb exploded on Thursday outside a radio station in Colombia's capital, injuring at least nine people and blowing out windows in the first major attack since President Juan Manuel Santos took office at the weekend.

A damaged bus with its front window blown out sat abandoned on a main avenue near Caracol radio, panicked residents stood in the streets, and investigators picked over the wreckage of the exploded car after the rare bombing in the capital.

"This is a terrorist attack," Santos told reporters at the site of the blast without giving details on those responsible. "I believe this is a message, this is not gratuitous."

Santos, a former defense minister, took office on Saturday promising to keep up former President Alvaro Uribe's U.S.-backed war on leftist FARC guerrillas and cocaine traffickers and his pro-business policies.

Bombings and attacks on Colombian cities dropped sharply after Uribe took office in 2002. Violence from the country's war ebbed as Uribe's security campaign sent troops out to battle leftist rebels and cocaine kingpins.