Car Bomb Hits Venezuelan Oil City of Maracaibo

reuters.com Sun March 2, 2003 04:00 PM ET By Pascal Fletcher

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - A car bomb exploded early on Sunday in the western Venezuelan oil city of Maracaibo, destroying three cars and damaging homes and a local office of the U.S. oil company Chevron Texaco, police said.

Hours after the blast, President Hugo Chavez said his country's security forces were on an anti-terrorist alert.

It was the third bomb attack in less than a week in Venezuela, where a long-running political feud between left-wing populist Chavez and his opponents has raised fears of violent upheaval in the world's No. 5 oil exporter.

Chavez, who is resisting opposition calls for early elections, Sunday blamed political foes for bomb blasts in the Venezuelan capital Caracas Tuesday which badly damaged Spanish and Colombian diplomatic buildings, injuring five people.

"We're on the alert in the whole country," the former army paratrooper said on his weekly "Hello President" television and radio show.

He did not mention Sunday's blast, which blew bits of masonry from the fronts of several private houses in the Richmond residential estate of Maracaibo's San Francisco district. Debris was scattered over a wide area.

The explosion also shattered windows of a nearby administrative office of the U.S. oil giant Chevron, one of several major foreign oil companies operating in oil-rich Venezuela. Police said Chevron did not appear to be the target.

They were working on the theory that the attack was part of a personal feud against a well-known local family, the Melians, whose house suffered the most damage. A car reported stolen by police and containing the bomb had been parked outside.

CHAVEZ SLAMS "DESPERATE" FOES

There was no apparent connection between Sunday's blast and Tuesday's bomb attacks against the Spanish embassy cooperation office and the Colombian consulate in Caracas. No one has claimed responsibility for these attacks, although leaflets signed by a radical pro-Chavez group were found at the scene.

But Chavez laid the blame Sunday on opponents he said had already unsuccessfully tried to oust him through a brief coup last year and in a two-month anti-government strike in December and January that disrupted Venezuela's strategic oil sector.

"Some desperate sectors, since they failed in the coup and failed in the oil sabotage, have now opted for terrorism and are going around setting off bombs," he said.

Opposition leaders have linked Tuesday's attacks to a speech by Chavez a week ago in which he sharply criticized Spain, Colombia and the United States, warning them not to meddle in his country's crisis.

The president, who condemns his opponents as rich "oligarchs," said Sunday privately-owned gas stations that took part in the stoppage could have their concessions withdrawn. He said his government would encourage the setting up of cooperatives jointly run by managers and workers.

Chavez is accused by opponents of ruling like a dictator and of trying to install Cuban-style communism in Venezuela. He portrays his foes as a rich, resentful elite opposed to his self-styled "revolution" he says is aimed at helping the poor.

The recent bomb blasts are unusual in Venezuela. Although it has suffered an increase in political violence caused by feuding between supporters and foes of Chavez, bomb attacks of the kind experienced in neighboring Colombia are rare.

Colombia said Saturday its security forces, in a joint operation with Venezuelan armed forces, had foiled an attempt by leftist Colombian guerrillas to blow up a border crossing bridge using a tanker truck packed with explosives. (Additional reporting by Magdalena Morales)