But, to paraphrase someone else's observation, one person's victim can be another's terrorist. One of those memorialized was Luis Alejandro Concha, a young leftist killed when a bomb destroyed an apartment building in Bogotá's Santa Fe neighborhood in 2006. A crime by the state? That's what his family charges.
But the government had a different version of events. According to the government and police, Concha and others were working with a guerrilla group building bombs in the building when one detonated accidentally, killing Concha, other building residents and a woman walking past in the street. To me, the official version always seemed much more believable than the idea that the government would bomb a building in the middle of Bogotá and kill bystanders in order to assassinate some young leftists.
But, when your son has been killed, it's not easy for a parent to believe that he was a terrorist.
A man contemplates a poster memorializing Luis Alejandro Concha, who was killed by a bomb which he apparently was building. |
'Freedom for political prisoners.' But a one man0s political prisoner is another man's common criminal. |
By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours
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