Explosions Rip Diplomatic Offices in Caracas

www.nytimes.com By DAVID GONZALEZ

CARACAS, Venezuela, Feb. 25 — Powerful explosions outside two diplomatic offices shattered windows and nerves early today, leaving four people wounded and many others uncertain about the prospects for a peaceful solution to the political crisis here.

One blast ripped the glass and steel facade of the Colombian Consulate downtown, twisting a thick steel entry gate and ruining two of the building's four floors. A second blast, outside the foreign aid office of the Spanish Embassy in a residential area, knocked a gate off its hinges and punched a hole through a wall. In both cases, people were wounded by flying glass, authorities said.

The explosions, which the police said were extraordinarily large and which neighbors said felt like earthquakes, came two days after President Hugo Chávez publicly berated Spain and Colombia for interfering in Venezuela's internal affairs. Mr. Chávez, who has outlasted an attempted coup and an opposition strike, had been criticized for the arrest of an opposition leader as well as for not assisting Colombia in its fight against leftist guerrillas.

The government denied any involvement in the blasts and ordered tighter security for foreign missions and the diplomatic corps. The deputy foreign minister, Arévalo Méndez, said the bombs were the work of a "sick and confused mind that had nothing to do" with any criticisms Mr. Chávez might have voiced against other nations.

"We repudiate this act of terrorism," Vice President José Vicente Rangel said at an afternoon news conference. "The government rejects any terrorist act, whatever it is, wherever it is, whoever the author. We reject any form of terrorism, whether it is from the state or from individuals."

Diplomats from Colombia and Spain did not blame the government but did urge thorough investigations, as did the United States.

The blasts, which occurred around 2:30 a.m. local time, also came one day before the resumption of talks between the government and the opposition, which only last week had agreed to tone down their accusations and reject violence. But the arrest last week of Carlos Fernández, a business leader who spearheaded the strike, had already increased skepticism over Mr. Chávez's commitment to a peaceful resolution. "This defines a new stage in the political situation in Venezuela, one in which there is greater chaos and violence and a president who is becoming more entrenched," said Michael Shifter, vice president for policy at the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington. "It makes it very hard to see negotiations, given this climate."

It is just as difficult to know who is responsible for the bombs. Leaflets were found at the sites of both explosions, signed by an obscure group, the Bolivarian Liberation Force, and the Simón Bolívar Coordinator, Urban Militia. Juan Contreras, director of the Simón Bolívar Coordinator, told a local newspaper that his group was a cultural association and said whoever used its name was fighting "a dirty war."

Only two days ago, during his weekly television broadcast, Mr. Chávez had lashed out at his critics, telling them to respect Venezuela's sovereignty. He said some of the nations that were faulting him for arresting the strike leader had supported the coup that failed to oust him last April.

"Where do Spain and Colombia want this to get to?" he said during the broadcast. "To break relations?"

A diplomat who is in close contact with the government and the opposition said the bombs were out of character for Venezuela, where previous explosions have been limited to grenades or pipe bombs left outside television stations.

The jangle of thousands of shards of glass being swept away echoed through the street outside the Colombian Consulate, where the entry gate was twisted. The concussion from the blast smashed countless windows inside an office building across the street, where dazed residents slowly picked their way through small rooms.

"The strike had already paralyzed the country," said Alberto Buroz, the president of an environmental engineering firm whose offices were the most damaged in the building. "Now with the few clients we have left, how can we attend to them? We have crossed the line. I don't know. I'd like to understand what will be the end of this story. But that has not been written yet."

Outside, Marta Lucía Varón stood by a banner held aloft by a group of her countrymen from Colombia. They had come to the street in solidarity, she said, as soon as they heard the news.

"This violence was created by the Chávez government," she said, despite protests from several Chávez supporters near her. "We fled violence in Colombia and chose Venezuela to make a living. And now we find this?"