The DAS Building bombing was a truck bomb attack in Bogotá

Bogotá

Bogotá, Distrito Capital , from 1991 to 2000 called Santa Fé de Bogotá, is the capital, and largest city, of Colombia. It is also designated by the national constitution as the capital of the department of Cundinamarca, even though the city of Bogotá now comprises an independent Capital district...

, Colombia

Colombia

Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...

, at 7:30 am on December 6, 1989. The bomb targeted the Administrative Department of Security

Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad

The Administrative Department of Security was the Security Service agency of Colombia, also responsible for the immigration services. It was dissolved on 31 October 2011 as part of a wider Executive Reform, and it was superseded by the National Directorate of Intelligence, DNI.- Activities :Its...

 (DAS) headquarters.

A truck parked near the building exploded, killing 52 people and injuring about 1,000. The bomb blast, with an estimated 500 kg of dynamite, levelled several city blocks and destroyed more than 300 commercial properties.

It is widely believed that the Medellín Cartel

Medellín Cartel

The Medellín Cartel was an organized network of "drug suppliers and smugglers" originating in the city of Medellín, Colombia. The drug cartel operated in Colombia, Bolivia, Peru, Central America, the United States, as well as Canada and Europe throughout the 1970s and 1980s. It was founded and...

 was responsible for the attack, in an attempt to assassinate DAS director Miguel Maza Márquez

Miguel Maza Márquez

General Miguel Alfredo Maza Márquez is a retired Colombian general, and former director of the Administrative Department of Security .-References:...

, who escaped unharmed. The same group was believed to be behind the bombing of Avianca Flight 203

Avianca Flight 203

Avianca Airlines Flight 203 was a Colombian domestic passenger flight from El Dorado International Airport in Bogotá to Alfonso Bonilla Aragón International Airport in Cali. It was destroyed by a bomb over the municipality of Soacha on November 27, 1989....

the previous month.