By SUSANNAH A. NESMITH, Associated Press Writer
BOGOTA, Colombia - Colombia's government blamed leftist rebels Saturday for a car bomb that ripped through an exclusive social club, killing 32 people — including six children — and injuring 162 in the worst terrorist attack in Bogota in more than a decade.
The attack was a shock to capital residents accustomed to a war, now in its fourth decade, fought mostly in the countryside. Vice President Francisco Santos said he "had no doubt" the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, was responsible.
He blamed the rebel organization for adopting the tactics of the drug lords who plague the country as well. "Before, what the narcoterrorists used, now (the rebels) use without any concerns of conscience," Santos said.
Not since drug lord Pablo Escobar unleashed a bloody campaign to avoid extradition to the United States had Bogota seen an attack of Friday's magnitude. With Escobar's death in 1993 and the subsequent breakup of Colombia's large drug cartels, the rebels inherited control of the country's cocaine trade.
The FARC recently vowed to take its drug-financed war against the state to the cities and to attack the country's elite — people like the businessmen and politicians who frequent El Nogal.
The rebel group did not claim responsibility for the attack. Local media outlets, however, speculated that a message posted on a Web site used frequently by the rebels contained a veiled warning.
The message, signed by an unknown group and posted Thursday, complained bitterly of President Alvaro Uribe's hardline government, and of the prominent people who support it. The message ends: "We'll see on the 7th at six." The bomb exploded Friday, Feb. 7, shortly after 8 p.m.
President Bush extended his sympathy to Uribe and to the families of those killed, saying, "On behalf of the United States, I condemn this barbaric act of terrorism. "We stand with the Colombian people in their fight against narcoterrorists who threaten their democratic way of life," Bush said, offering U.S. support in finding those responsible for the attack.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan condemned the bombing, saying, "The heartless killing of innocent civilians will only deepen the conflict and further undermine hopes for peace that Colombia seeks and deserves."
The death toll increased from 25 to 32 on Saturday afternoon and included six children, according to the Bogota coroner's office. Another 162 people were injured, officials said.
On Saturday, firefighters searched through the rubble of the club, one of Colombia's most exclusive and a symbol of wealth and power that had some 2,000 members. Inside were restaurants, a mini-golf course, a gym and rooms for overnight guests. On Friday night, it was packed with revelers, businessmen attending meetings and a group of children that was to perform a ballet.
Though officials had held little hope that anyone was alive in the wreckage, rescuers found a 12-year-old girl — Maria Camila Garcia — between the third and fourth floors, Attorney General Luis Camilo Osorio said after touring the scene. Garcia was in serious condition, hospital officials said. Her uncle, Mauricio Mugno, at the scene hoping for news of her, said both her parents were killed.
"We searched through all the clinics this morning and haven't found anything," said a tearful Rosa Maria Baracaldo, whose sister, Margo Alfonso, was working last night in the club and had not been heard from. "The rescue workers have told us that all the bodies inside are badly burned, and its difficult to recognize them."
Rescue workers set up a makeshift morgue in tents outside the building. Bodies, many of them charred from the fire which burned for two hours after the explosion, were brought out on stretchers. Rescue workers sat nearby at typewriters, taking down descriptions of the missing from relatives.
Each time a new body was brought down, relatives rushed to push photographs of their loved ones toward officials. Across the street from the club, many stopped in a Catholic church to pray.
Associated Press Writer Michael Easterbrook contributed to this report.
