The People's Command claimed responsibility for a minor attack on the U.S. Embassy in La Paz, Bolivia on March 27th, 1986. A small dynamite bomb was thrown at the embassy from a nearby building. The bomb caused minor damage but no injuries. A message identifying the People's Command (previously unknown) as the attacker threatened further incidents and cited U.S. policy towards Libya as the primary motivation for the attack. Tensions had been rising between the United States and Libya for some time. The U.S. ran a provocative naval drill off of the Libyan coast in March 1986. Shortly thereafter, terrorists connected to Libya bombed a Berlin discotheque popular with American soldiers. One U.S. serviceman was killed. The U.S. launched a retaliatory air strike against Libya on April 15th. <P><br /><br />The U.S.-Libya crisis inspired a similar bombing attack outside the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City in May 1986. The bomb, placed in a car parked outside the embassy, was defused following an anonymous tip. A previously unknown group called the Commando Internacionalista Simon Bolivar claimed credit for the attack. The group later claimed credit for an attack against a General Motors factory on the one-year anniversary of the Libya air strike. <P><br /><br />It is highly unlikely that the Mexico City embassy car bomb and the dynamite attack in La Paz are connected. However, they are both indicative of the type of minor, non-lethal incident at a U.S. facility that occurs with some frequency in Latin America. Notes or phone calls claiming these attacks frequently identify a group name. However, these groups are usually never heard from again. More active Latin American terrorist groups occasionally claim attacks under front names, such as the Shining Path's assassination of a Peruvian military attach&#233; in Bolivia under the name "Workers' Revolutionary Party" in December 1988. However, this is not likely the case in this instance. More likely, the dynamite toss was a one-time statement made by an individual or small group. <P><br />