A bomb set off by suspected rebels ripped through a shopping center in northeastern Colombia on Wednesday, killing seven people, injuring at least 20 and setting the complex on fire. Television images showed shocked survivors wandering around the shopping stalls, blackened Ash Wednesday marks still on their foreheads. Government officials said the attack in Cucuta, on the border with Venezuela, was part of an attempt by guerrillas to bring the nation’s long-simmering war to Colombia’s cities. Defense Minister Martha Lucia Ramirez said the urban offensive is a response to government offensives in the countryside. “Unfortunately, that is the risk we have to run,” she said. After the bombing, President Alvaro Uribe appointed a police general to find rebel infiltrators in Cucuta government offices. The state news agency identified the prosecutor’s office as one government agency where people got jobs because of pressure from rebels. Full Story
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