5 Bomb Blasts in Colombia Injure 2
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BOGOTA, Colombia — Five bombs packed with up to 2.2 pounds of dynamite exploded almost simultaneously Thursday night outside banks and a supermarket across Bogota, injuring two passersby and causing widespread damage, police said.
No group claimed immediate responsibility for the blasts that rocked largely working-class sectors in the north, northwest and south of the Colombian capital.
In the past, both National Liberation Army, or ELN, guerrillas and a small dissident wing of the now defunct M-19 rebel group have targeted banks to protest what they see as the mismanagement and rampant corruption in Colombia’s financial sector.
Two bombs detonated outside branches of Bancafe, Colombia’s second-largest bank, and two more went off outside Granahorrar, a state-run savings and loan. Two pedestrians were injured in the Granahorrar blast. A fifth explosion rocked a supermarket and a branch of Las Villas, a private-sector savings and loan run by Colombia’s biggest financial magnate, Luis Carlos Sarmiento.
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