Bombs found in Bogotá buses

BOGOTA - Molotov cocktails were found on three Bogotá city buses Tuesday, the latest in a much-feared urban terror campaign in Colombia's capital.

One bus in the city's north end was destroyed by flames, and the other explosive devices found throughout the city were discovered before they were set off, police said. No passengers were hurt.

The government was quick to point the blame: ''It was FARC terrorism,'' National Police Commander Gen. Teodoro Campo said.

The FARC, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, are leftist rebels waging war here for nearly 40 years. Guerrilla tactics common in the countryside have recently made their way to urban centers, bringing a decades-old war to the cities in random incidents that sometimes appear to have no particular target.

The rebel group denied responsibility for a Feb. 7 car bomb that killed 37 people at an exclusive social club. Other recent urban attacks have included a laptop bomb left in December at a hotel frequented by politicians, and mini-rockets launched at the federal prosecutor's office in November.

Tuesday's attacks were against Transmilenio buses, a transportation system inaugurated just two years ago that shuttles 800,000 people a day in designated lanes. Police said gasoline-filled bottles were left on three of the 470-bus fleet.

Police confiscated Coca-Cola containers with an unusual substance inside, police Col. Marco Antonio Pedreros said. Two women allegedly seen planting the devices were arrested.

''We saw the bus was parked and started to light up,'' transportation worker Jenny Correa told local TV reporters. ``There were about 35 or 40 people on board. There was desperation, and they started to run.''

A similar bomb was found on a Transmilenio bus in January. And in December, authorities announced they had learned of a FARC plan to bomb 80 buses.

Transportation officials stressed that all 61 Transmilenio stations were being searched and that bus service would not be suspended. City leaders urged commuters to continue using the shuttle system.

U.S. ambassador in Venezuela voices concern about terrorist groups in Latin America *** CARACAS, Venezuela - The United States is concerned that international terrorist groups have established bases in Venezuela and other Latin American countries, the U.S. ambassador said Friday. "We are worried about the existence of terrorist groups not only in Venezuela but in all Latin American countries," Charles Shapiro told reporters after meeting with Venezuelan Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel.

Shapiro was responding to questions about statements made by Gen. James Hill, commander of the U.S. Southern Command. Hill told a military conference in Miami on Tuesday that organizations such as militant Lebanese group Hezbollah were operating in the tri-border area of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay and Venezuela's Margarita Island, the Financial Times reported Wednesday.

Hill said the groups were taking advantage of smuggling hotspots and weak institutions in those areas to channel funds to international terrorist groups. "I don't want to accuse anybody but we are on alert," Shapiro said. "We are ready to collaborate with the Venezuelan government to seek out terrorism that may exist in this country." ***

Chávez's Bolivarian Circles in South Florida - 17 around U.S. - Spreading around world *** Circle leaders draw strength from what they say is a growing Bolivarian international network. The U.S. circle members will hold their first national assembly in New York in March, and Chávez representatives from Venezuela plan to attend.

The Venezuelan government also will host an international Bolivarian Circle meeting in April in Caracas. ''There are circles in Bilbao, Madrid, Denmark -- all over the place. It's really neat,'' said Guillermo García Ponce, Chávez advisory committee coordinator, in an interview with The Herald in Caracas. He acknowledged that South Florida has become an anti-Chávez stronghold. ''I suppose [the Miami circle] will have to keep a low profile,'' García said.

Anti-Chávez activists say they do not oppose the presence of a Bolivarian Circle in Miami as long as it doesn't instigate the violence they allege the circles have caused in Venezuela -- a claim Soto and others deny. ''The government has allowed the Bolivarian Circles to attack the newspapers, attack the reporters,'' said Raúl Leoni, a Venezuelan opposition leader who lives in Weston. ``The fact that you win an election doesn't make you eternal if you're not doing your job correctly.''

……………..The Bolivarian Circles -- along with Chávez's controversial 1999 ''Bolivarian constitution'' -- are part of his overarching ``Bolivarian Revolution.'' Some 70,000 circles exist in Venezuela, made up largely of the working class. Typically, they meet weekly and engage in humanitarian projects such as providing food for the poor -- with military financing -- and building schools. Critics compare the circles to Fidel Castro's Committees for the Defense of the Revolution.***

Brazil blocking conference to deal with Latin crises*** Judging from the speeches and the talk in the hallways I heard at a top-level conference on military affairs earlier this week, there is a big bad boy who is blocking plans to solve Latin America's multiple crises -- Brazil. It's not that Brazil has done anything dreadful since the Jan. 1 inauguration of leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, said several participants at the meeting on ''Building Regional Security'' organized by the University of Miami's North-South Center. On the contrary, da Silva has proven to be more level-headed than many Washington conservatives had anticipated.

Rather, the problem is that Brazil, the biggest country in South America, is sitting on the sidelines while the neighborhood is afire, several of the speakers said. Brazil is still paralyzed by 19th century fears of U.S. imperial designs, which have long driven it to instinctively reject almost anything coming from Washington or supported by Washington, regardless of its merits, they said. These days, Brazil is effectively blocking a Canadian-sponsored proposal to hold an emergency summit with President Bush and 33 other elected leaders in the hemisphere, aimed at doing something about the escalating crises in Colombia, Venezuela, Argentina, Bolivia, Haiti and several other countries.

Such a presidential summit would, among other things, force the Bush administration to pay some attention to Latin America, which fell off White House radar screens after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. But while the United States, Mexico, Caribbean nations and most South American countries support the emergency summit, which would be held in September in Mexico, Brazil is stone-walling the proposal, Canadian and U.S. officials say. ''Everybody is mystified as to why Brazil doesn't go along,'' says Paul D. Durand, Canada's ambassador to the Organization of American States.***

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