BOGOTA, Colombia, Aug. 7 -- Leftist guerrillas launched explosive charges against the presidential palace and surrounding streets today, killing at least 14 people, as President Alvaro Uribe was being sworn in at the nearby parliament building with a pledge to end the "slavery of violence" that has corroded Colombia for almost 40 years.

The spectacular attack did not injure Uribe or any of the Colombian or foreign officials gathered for his inauguration, including a U.S. delegation headed by Trade Representative Robert B. Zoellick and anti-drug coordinator John P. Walters. But it served as a bloody challenge to the country's new leader, who has pledged to restore Colombia's deteriorating national security by waging a broad war against the powerful guerrilla forces combating the Colombian army.

The explosions occurred within blocks of the Congress building, where Uribe was sworn in late this afternoon. In launching them, the guerrillas defied extraordinary security measures put in place across the capital to protect the bookish former governor, who has been a guerrilla target for years. The fact that the attacks were launched despite the heavy security underscored the daunting task Uribe faces in carrying out his vows to tame a seasoned insurgency and counter the terrorist-style tactics it frequently employs.

Colombian authorities said that at least one explosive -- which they described as a homemade mortar launched from a makeshift pad -- landed on the grounds of Casa de Narino, the graceful stone presidential palace two blocks from the Congress building. The blast injured four officers, police said. A second charge landed near a restaurant outside the palace grounds without hurting anyone.

Two other explosions -- also from homemade mortars -- occurred four blocks from the palace and accounted for the 14 deaths tallied by police. The victims were mostly homeless people and other civilians, including three children, police said. Another 69 people were reported injured, many of them destitute residents of a notoriously lawless part of the capital.

Inside the austere congressional chambers, Uribe condemned the warfare that has undermined Colombia for years and outlined his notion of "democratic security," apparently unaware of what was unfolding in the streets outside. The president of the Senate, Luis Alfredo Ramos, said Uribe received the news calmly after the ceremony.

Colombian air force Mirage warplanes and U.S.-supplied AH-60 Black Hawk helicopters flew over the scene, which had become a tangle of aluminum siding, bodies and weeping survivors.

"Our whole nation is crying out for respite and security," Uribe said in a 20-minute speech. "No crime can be justified directly or otherwise, no kidnap can be explained away by political doctrine. I understand the grief of the mother, the orphan and the displaced. As I wake every morning I will search my soul to ensure that the acts of authority which I undertake will arise from these intentions."

There was no claim of responsibility for today's attacks. But police blamed the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the larger of two leftist insurgencies seeking to overthrow the government and replace it with a Marxist-oriented system.

Uribe, 50, a former governor of Antioquia, Colombia's most populous province, has promised a sharp change from the emphasis of his predecessor, Andres Pastrana, on negotiating an end to the 38-year-old conflict, growing worse on the profits of the drug trade. Uribe has promised to double defense spending and establish a civilian intelligence network of a million people -- efforts to increase a notoriously weak central government's presence in the war-ravaged countryside.

But Uribe will have to implement his broader war with slim resources in a wobbly economy, at least to start his four-year term. He has appealed to the United States to expand its $1.3 billion anti-drug aid package and loosen rules governing its use so that the military equipment and U.S.-trained brigades can be used directly against the guerrillas, not just the drug crops they protect for profit.

The FARC, an 18,000-member army, recently has stepped up attacks on Colombia's infrastructure and urban centers -- highlighted by the attack here today. It has harassed strategic regions to combat inroads by an enemy paramilitary group, the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, which is financed by wealthy ranchers and the drug trade and fights in tandem with the military.

Both groups, as well as a second, smaller Marxist insurgency known as the National Liberation Army, are on the State Department's list of foreign terrorist organizations.

Uribe has not ruled out peace talks with the guerrillas, who scuttled negotiations with Pastrana by hijacking a plane in February. But Uribe has called for a cease-fire before any such contacts begin.

Last year, 3,500 people died in Colombia's war, many of them civilians, and the country suffers from one of the highest kidnapping rates in the world. Ransom, as well as a drug trade that accounts for 90 percent of the cocaine reaching the United States, provides much of the war's financing.

While restoring security is Uribe's chief task, he also faces a less tangible challenge of high expectations. In recent days, he and his vice president, the journalist and anti-kidnapping activist Francisco Santos, have been making public statements to remind war-weary Colombians that "there is no miracle" that will solve deep social problems and stop a well-financed insurgency.

"It will be impossible to solve everything in four years, but we shall spare no effort to try," Uribe said today. "That is my duty to our youth and future generations. It is my obligation of honor to those 80 percent of Colombians, the young now awakening to life, who need us to do whatever is right to ensure that their hopes may flower into reality."

Similar high expectations traced a declining slope through Pastrana's four years in office, which ended today with his departure for Spain. His popularity ratings were in the low 20 percent range.

Pastrana, elected in 1998 on a peace platform, succeeded in restoring Colombia's tattered relationship with the United States after the scandal-plagued administration of Ernesto Samper. Pastrana also won a big U.S. anti-drug package that placed Colombia third on the list of foreign aid recipients. But his peace overtures with the FARC, which enjoyed a government-sanctioned haven in southern Colombia during three years of peace talks, came to naught as violence and kidnapping mounted.

Pastrana's popularity spiked briefly after breaking off those talks in February, after which he condemned the FARC as a terrorist organization for the first time. He spent his final days in office offering a positive defense of his tenure.

"We also achieved the political defeat of the guerrillas, the participation and understanding of the international community, the involvement of all of civil society in the subject of peace," Pastrana said in a farewell speech Tuesday night. "We were not wrong."

What Uribe has promised most fervently to this country of 43 million people is action more than specific results, and he will begin his presidency with a swing through several provinces. He is scheduled to be in Valledupar, a provincial capital in eastern Colombia, Thursday morning to outline his plans for a civilian intelligence network. Human rights groups have warned that such a network could evolve into paramilitary organizations.

© 2002 The Washington Post Company

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A57179-2002Aug7.html