USAID Colombia Offices To Move After Car Bomb Discovery
USAID
WASHINGTON, May 10 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The office of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in Colombia will be moved to the U.S. Embassy compound in Bogota following the discovery of a car bomb near the current off-site location late last month, State Department officials said Friday.
The officials said the April 28 discovery of the bomb, which was deactivated, near the private office building where USAID and several Colombian businesses are located, had highlighted existing security concerns for U.S. personnel in the country.
The U.S. Department of State has increasingly issued heightened travel warnings to Americans abroad after the attacks on the U.S. on September 11. But the agency stated that it did not think the USAID offices were the targets of the averted car-bombing.
"There is no indication that the AID office was the target of the bomb, but as a precaution, the Embassy is relocating the office to the compound," one official said.
The officials, speaking to Agence France-Presse (AFP) on the condition of anonymity, noted that a Colombian newspaper and electric company were also in the current building and that the German Embassy was also nearby.
"The bomb underscores the sense that they should be moved to a more secure location," a second official said.
There has been no claim of responsibility for the bomb but Colombian authorities believe it was likely placed by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the officials said.
Washington has designated the leftist guerrilla group a "foreign terrorist organization."
The officials said the State Department would be asking Congress for some 3.8 million dollars to fund the move, which will likely involve constructing additional, if temporary, buildings on the Bogota Embassy compound.
