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Bomb discovered in Colombia before visit of U.S. senator, ambassador

U.S. Sen. Paul Wellstone

From staff and wire reports

BOGOTA, Colombia -- Police in Colombia said Friday they had discovered a roadside bomb outside a town hours before a U.S. senator and U.S. ambassador were to visit.

Sen. Paul Wellstone, a Democrat from Minnesota, and U.S. Ambassador Anne Patterson were the likely targets, Police Col. Jose Miguel Villar said.

However, a U.S. State Department official in Washington said Patterson told department officials by telephone that she did not see it as an assassination attempt. Another official, also asking for anonymity, added that it is not unusual for such devices to be found in Barrancabermeja, considering the town's reputation for violence.

Villar said officers found two shrapnel-wrapped land mines alongside the road leading from Barrancabermeja's airport into the town just hours before Wellstone and Patterson were scheduled to arrive on Thursday.

Wellstone and Patterson, a former assistant secretary of state and former ambassador to El Salvador, were visiting Barrancabermeja, 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of Bogota, to offer support to human rights activists there.

MESSAGE BOARD Violence in Colombia

Villar said the visit was public knowledge, but secret plans had already been in place to transport the U.S. officials into town via helicopter.

Police arrested Bernardo Alvarez Durarte, a suspected member of the rebel National Liberation Army (ELN), near the location of the land mines, Villar said. The United States supports Colombia in its battle against the ELN and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a larger rebel group.

Villar said police had not confirmed that Wellstone and Patterson were the targets, but said blasts from the devices, each carrying a 3-kilogram (6.6-pound) explosive charge, would have been severe.

"If the bomb had gone off, it could have caused immense damage," he said. "It would have spread shrapnel over a wide area and could have taken out 10 or 15 people."

Barrancabermeja has been described as the most violent town in Colombia. The region is plagued by right-wing paramilitaries and leftist rebels vying for control.

Almost 500 politically related murders have been committed there since the beginning of the year, human rights activists said.

Wellstone is a second-term senator and member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He arrived in Colombia on Tuesday and was to return to the United States on Friday.

Patterson was sworn in as ambassador to Colombia in August.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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U.S. State Department
  • Biography: Anne W. Patterson
U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone
U.S. Embassy in Bogota, Columbia (Spanish/English)
  • Biografia embajadora Anne Woods Patterson (Spanish)

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