BOMBS SHAKE BOGOTA'S IMAGE AS HAVEN FROM POLITICAL VIOLENCE

BOGOTA, Colombia, May 26 -- After a hard week at work, Carmenza Angarita
was looking forward to a fun-filled weekend: drinks and dancing with her
husband and an outing with the family into the lush countryside outside
this Andean capital.

But Ms. Angarita, 40, canceled this weekend's plans, as did countless
others here, after two bombs went off outside Colombia's leading university
during the Friday morning rush hour. The first bomb, placed under a
pedestrian overpass and near a bus stop, went off after 8 a.m., killing
three people, news accounts said. A few minutes later, as police officers,
firefighters and other officials arrived, the second bomb went off, killing
an investigator from the attorney general's office. More than 20 people
were injured.

The attack, the second bombing in a heavily traversed public space in the
country in a week, shook this city's image as a safe haven from the
political violence in Colombia's countryside. It also renewed fears that a
terror bombing campaign like the one started by drug cartels a decade ago
might be in the making.

"This weekend, it is better to stay at home, taking care of ourselves," Ms.
Angarita, a public accountant, said Friday. "We are prisoners in the city
because we cannot go out into the countryside. We are prisoners in our
homes because what happened to the people who died today could happen to us."

The bombing outside the National University, Colombia's most prestigious,
came a week after a car bomb was detonated near a popular cafe district in
an affluent neighborhood of Medellin, killing eight people. Earlier this
month, another car bomb exploded outside a Cali hotel, injuring 29 people.
And several other bombs have been deactivated this month, including a
500-pound bomb placed outside the Bogota offices of Voz, a Communist
newspaper, that bomb experts said could have obliterated several city blocks.

The government reacted swiftly to the latest bombing, augmenting patrols,
setting up roadblocks and adding security measures to military and police
installations. President Andres Pastrana canceled a trip to France and
convened ministers, army brass and the chiefs of law enforcement agencies
to discuss who might be behind the bombings and what actions should be taken.

Officials did not say who they believed was behind the Friday bombing, and
no one took responsibility. But a right-wing paramilitary leader said his
group had placed the bomb outside Voz's offices. La Terraza, a team of
hitmen that had once worked for right-wing paramilitary groups, is believed
be behind the bomb in Medellin. Leftist rebels, who have often bombed oil
pipelines, have not been ruled out.

With the bombing outside the university, painful memories have been revived
from the bombing campaign carried out in the early 1990's by Pablo Escobar
and other cartel leaders to try to avoid extradition on drug charges to the
United States. The attacks ended with Mr. Escobar's killing by the police
in 1993.

"History is repeating itself, and now we are living the same fear that we
lived 10 years ago," said Marcela Hernandez, 36, a piano teacher. "You
cannot go to the supermarket and assure that you're going to survive. It
sounds exaggerated, but that is the way it is."

Bogota residents reacted Friday by leaving work in the middle of the day.
As news of the bombing spread, the peso dropped in value.

Lucia Restrepo, 40, a secretary, said she decided she would not let her son
go bowling over the weekend, or do anything else. "I know that we cannot
hide in our house," she said, "but for at least this weekend, I won't let
him out."