Blast Hits Venezuelan Ranchers' Group Office

<a href=reuters.com>Reuters.com Wed April 16, 2003 03:23 PM ET

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - A bomb exploded in western Venezuela near the frontier with Colombia on Wednesday, damaging the headquarters of a local ranchers' association which had denounced cross-border activity by leftist Colombian rebels, witnesses and police said.

No one was injured in the early morning explosion which tore through the car park and the entrance of the building in San Cristobal in Tachira state, shattering windows and scattering debris.

Officials said two men were arrested in connection with the explosion.

The blast came four days after a bomb badly damaged a Caracas office building where Venezuelan government and opposition leaders have held talks to try to end their bitter feud over the rule of leftist President Hugo Chavez.

Venezuela has been shaken by political tensions and violence for more than a year as Chavez and his opponents feud over his self-styled "revolution." Opposition leaders are demanding the former paratrooper allow early elections.

Five people were injured last month when two bombs exploded at the Spanish Embassy cooperation office and the Colombian consulate building in Caracas. No-one claimed responsibility for those bomb attacks.

Ranchers and landowners in Tachira, on Venezuela's porous frontier with Colombia, complain the government has not done enough to stop leftist Colombian guerrillas and crime gangs from carrying out killings, kidnappings and extortion.

The government has denied persistent allegations by Colombian officials, and by domestic political foes, that it allows guerrillas to operate in Venezuelan territory. Caracas says Colombia is not doing its part to protect its border.

Repeated tit-for-tat accusations over frontier security have soured relations between the Andean neighbors ahead of a scheduled meeting next week between Chavez and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe in Puerto Ordaz in eastern Venezuela.