About 150 protesters attacked riot police with rocks and metal barriers and ripped down lampposts in Colombia's capital on Sunday, just moments after U.S. President George W. Bush landed for a six-hour visit, according to The Associated Press. Some 200 helmeted police in full body armor responded with water cannon and tear gas and reclaimed the street, located about a mile (1.6 kilometers) from the presidential palace, banging their batons against riot shields as they marched forward. Some of the rioters later rampaged on Bogota's main avenue, breaking shop windows and ripping computers from bank offices. The rioters had broken away from a larger group of 2,000 protesters. At least one police officer was injured and 35 people arrested, said a city police spokesman who insisted he not be further identified. The country was remarkably peaceful, however. A small bomb exploded Sunday morning in the lawless Pacific port of Buenaventura, injuring two civilians. The police blamed the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, which has been fighting the government for 42 years but which President Alvaro Uribe has put on the defensive. Along Colombia's northeastern border with Venezuela, authorities close a frontier bridge after some 200 people staged a protest on the Venezuelan side.
