Thousands of Colombians gather to protest deadly car bomb

BOGOTA, Colombia -- Poor and unemployed Colombians marched alongside the nation's wealthy Sunday to protest last week's car bomb attack that killed 32 people in an exclusive club.

Wearing white T-shirts and chanting "life is sacred," thousands of capital residents said they were tired of escalating violence and called on the government and rebel groups to start talking.

"Here we all are, rich and poor, agreeing that there must be peace," said 66-year-old Nora Vargas de Galindo, walking with her husband, a retired truck driver for Colombian brewing company Bavaria.

The government blamed members of Colombia's largest rebel group -- the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC -- for planting the 330-pound bomb, which exploded Friday night in the third-floor parking garage of the club.

The 11-story building was gutted, killing 32 people, including six children, and injuring at least 162.

The FARC has not claimed responsibility for the attack. Nonetheless, a statement posted Sunday on a Web site with links to the FARC and well-known leftist groups claims the elite El Nogal club was a popular meeting spot for outlawed paramilitary members and government officials such as Interior Minister Fernando Londono, a former president of El Nogal.

The statement was not signed by anyone, and it was unclear who wrote it.

The bombing was the first massive attack in Bogota in over a decade, shocking residents accustomed to a war fought mostly in rural areas.

Colombia's ambassador to the United States, Luis Alberto Moreno, said Sunday that Defense Minister Martha Lucia Ramirez will travel to the United States today to ask for more aid to fight terrorism.

Though targeting Colombia's elite may have been an attempt by the FARC to capture the support of the nation's urban poor, impoverished Colombians marching Sunday said that tactic would not work.

"No one has the right to kill innocent people," said Luis Eduardo Cubillos, an unemployed accountant. "The rebels are not following through with their (original) ideals of helping the Colombian people. They are making serious mistakes."

At the time of Friday's attack, the El Nogal -- one of Colombia's most exclusive clubs -- was full of weekend revelers, businessmen in meetings and even children preparing for a ballet.

"This country has suffered so much," Cubillos said with tears in his eyes. "I brought my son here to help explain the situation in Colombia but also so he sees that most Colombians are good people."

Holding the hand of his 5-year-old son, Cubillos marched with his wife and thousands of other Bogota residents down a major thoroughfare to a religious ceremony at Simon Bolivar Park.

About 10,000 people marched, authorities said.

At the park, Roman Catholic Cardinal Pedro Rubiano, the country's most senior prelate, urged residents to continue civilian protests, saying, "We can't kneel down in the face of terrorism."

Vice President Francisco Santos, Bogota Mayor Antanas Mockus and First Lady Lina Moreno also participated Sunday.

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, which did not claim responsibility for the attack, 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 frequented the 2,000-member El Nogal.

Local media outlets speculated Saturday 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 ended with "We'll see on the 7th at six."

Though the bomb exploded Feb. 7, shortly after 8 p.m., the statement posted Sunday on the FARC-linked Web site said the ending of that message referred to the launching of a campaign to protest a broad package of reforms being pushed by Uribe.

Colombia's war pits the 18,000-strong FARC and other leftist rebels against the government and paramilitary groups. About 3,500 people, mainly civilians, die in the fighting each year.

The Colombian army said Sunday it killed seven paramilitary fighters in southern Colombia.

FARC rebels have vowed to continue the war until they control Colombia. Initial government contacts for negotiations with another leftist rebel group, the National Liberation Army, have yet to produce results.

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