One Less for the Conspiracists?

The grave of Carlos Pizarro in Bogotá's Cementerio Central. His remains were exhumed last November. 

Nearly every prominent killing committed in Colombia has given birth to conspiracy theories:

Was Jorge Eliecer Gaitán killed by the CIA or the KGB rather than a crazy man with a Gaitán
obsession?

Was Luis Carlos Galán's killing planned by the police who were supposed to be protecting him?

Tiles on Pizarro's tomb thank him for favors received.

Was Pablo Escobar shot down by a United States government agent rather than the Colombian search squad usually credited for his killing?

The grim list of possible conspiracies - some of which are probably true - goes on and on.

But it might be one shorter now. Last November, investigators dug up and examined the skeleton of Carlos Pizarro, the M-19 guerrilla-leader-turned-presidential-candidate shot down in 1990 on board a Bogotá-Barranquilla airline flight. According to the official story, the assassin, Gerardo Gutiérrez Uribe alias "Jerry", had hidden a sub-machine gun inside the plane's bathroom, with which he shot Pizarro 15 times. Pizarro's bodyguards immediately shot down the gunman.

Altho fingers first pointed toward Pablo Escobar, confessions and other evidence have since shown that the killing was ordered by right-wing paramilitaries led by Carlos Castaño.

Carlos Pizarro

But suspicions still swirled around the episode. Was the government involved in the murder? Had one of Pizarro's bodyguards actually killed the leftist leader and then shot the supposed gunman as a cover-up?

Mistakes in the investigation fed the conspiracy theories. Experts failed to carry out ballistic tests on Pizarro's corpse. And, a few years ago, police melted down the sub-machine gun during a routine clean-up.

However, examination of Pizarro's exhumed remains, as well as those of the gunman, seem to show that the gunman did in fact shoot Pizarro. On the other hand, a bullet hole located strangely in the back of the gunman's skull supports eyewitness testimony that Pizarro's bodyguards shot the gunman dead as he lay face-down on the plane's floor begging for mercy.

Was the gunman executed to prevent him from talking about possible government involvement in Pizarro's killing? We may never know for certain. Conspiracy theorists - get working!

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

The Union Patriotica: Back on the March

Union Patriotica members ready for their march. 

The Union Patriotica party kicked off its Fifth Annual Congress today with a march down Ave. Septima.

The far-left party was born in 1985, out of FARC-government peace negotiations, and the UP's precise relationship to the guerrillas has always been controversial. Some referred to the UP as the FARC's political wing. During the late '80s and early '90s more than 3,000 UP members were assassinated by right-wing forces, in what is recalled as 'The Genocide of the Union Patriotica.' Those killings are still being investigated, and most recently prosecutors have been probing big businesses' role in financing the killings. 

I was struck by the image of this old man,
evidently a true believer, waving his UP
banner and wearing his communist cap. 

In 2002, the UP lost its legal status as a political party because lacked the necessary support. But recently the party was reconstituted. Now, its political future is to be defined. If the ongoing FARC-government peace negotiations going on in Havana, Cuba produce a treaty, the UP could be the FARC's vehicle for integrating into politics. 

A bike tourist photographs street art memorializing the assassination of thousands of UP leaders during the late '80s and early '90s, remembered as the 'genocide of the Union Patriotica.'

A bit bizzarely, the march also included this Afro-Colombian dance troupe.

The Campasa Abisina.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

The Return of the Union Patriotica

Union Patriotica Party supporters march down Ave. Septima yesterday.

The mass murder of the far-left Union Patriotica political party by right-wing forces apparently linked to the government is one of the great tragedies of Colombian history. But, recently, U.P. supporters reconstituted the party, which could be platform for the FARC guerrilla to enter politics if the ongoing peace talks in Havana produce a treaty. (Many Colombians believe that the guerrillas, who have committed innumerable human rights violations, belong in prison rather than Congress.) The original U.P. was associated with the FARC, altho whether it was the guerrillas' creation or just shared values isn't clear.

Yesterday, U.P. supporters held a commemoration march for the 'Genocide of the Union Patriotica' on the anniversary of one of the most infamous assassinations of a party member, the 1987 shooting outside of Bogotá of U.P. presidential candidate Jaime Pardo Garzon.

Sadly, soon after the U.P.'s reconstitution, its supporters started fighting amongst themselves over who controls the reborn party.

The woman in white, whose named I don't know, helped to legally reconstitute the Union Patriotica Party.

Police line the march route. 

The tomb of Union Patriotica presidential candidate Jaime Pardo Leal, in Bogotá's Central Cemetery.

The march about genocide included a strange theme with this scantily-clad dancer.

A mural on 26th St. across from the Central Cemetery commemorates the Union Patriotica genocide with its 3,000-plus killings. 

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Who Murdered Jaime Garzón?

A mural on Calle 26 memorializes assassinated radio comedian Jaime Garzón.

A conspiracy involving the military and right-wing paramilitaries, according to the most recent investigations.

Jaime Garzón and his duck. 

Yesterday, a court finally filed charges a military officer in the 1999 killings, perhaps finally bringing closure to one of Colombia's most notorious political assassinations.

Jaime Garzón was a popular radio comic and critic of the wealthy and powerful. In his youth, he had been a radical leftist and briefly a member of the ELN guerrillas. Before his contract-style killing, committed by a motorcyclist one morning in Bogotá's Quinta Paredes neighborhood, Garzón had been advocating peace negotiations between the ELN guerrillas and the government.

So, many signs pointed to right-wing forces, altho some speculated that the rival FARC guerrilla group could be behind the killing.

But, over the years, evidence including released U.S. documents has added evidence that the paramilitary and military paid to have Garzón killed. Paramilitary leader Carlos Castaño was charged for the murder, but he was killed by rival paramilitaries.

Yesterday's charges against Col. Jorge Plazas, who is on the lam, might finally mean that one of the conspirators in one of Colombia's most notorious assassinations gets punished.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Bogotá's Bloody Political History

Jorge Eliecer Gaitan, the populist presidential candidate assassinated in 1948, triggering the Bogotazo riots. 

For a grim tour of Bogotá, visit the local government building on the corner of Carrera 3 and Calle 12b in La Candelaria. In commemoration of the Month of the Victims of human rights violations, they've set up an exhibition about the many assassinations which have marked and often altered the history of Bogotá's and Colombia.

Sadly, Colombia has experienced so many assassinations that their memorial could fill a much larger plaza.

A woman contemplates a map of Bogotá showing where political assassinations happened.

Jaime Pardo Leal, presidential candidate of the far-left Union Patriota party, assassinated by right-wing forces in 1987. The U.P. party had links to the FARC guerrillas, but the exact relationship is still disputed. The killings of thousands of U.P. members is known as the 'genocide of the Union Patriota.'

Bernardo Jaramillo, Union Patriota presidential candidate assassinated by paramilitaries in Bogotá's airport in 1990. That campaign saw four candidates assassinated. 

Carlos Pizarro, the M-19 guerrillas' presidential candidate, assassinated in  1990.

The displaced, Colombia's most numerous and least visible victims. 

Twelve regional congressional representatives from El Valle del Cauca were kidnapped by the FARC guerrillas in 2002 and 11 of them murdered by the guerrillas in 2007.

Young men from Soacha, in South Bogotá, murdered in the 'Falsos Positivos' scandal, in which military units kidnapped and killed young men, then disguised them as guerrillas in order to earn bonuses. 

Presidential Candidate Luis Carlos Galan, assassinated in 1989 in South Bogotá by Pablo Escobar and others. 

Carlos Ernesto Valencia, the judge investigating the assassination of El Espectador newspaper publisher Guillermo Cano, was assassinated in downtown Bogotá in 1989 by Pablo Escobar. Cano had himself been assassinated by Escobar, who would also go on to kill the prosecutor who replaced Valencia.

The National University, whose campus has been the scene of radical leftist politics, and some of whose students have become martyrs. 

Relatives of kidnapped police, soldiers and politicians, who demonstrate every month on the Plaza Bolivar demanding that the government negotiate with the FARC guerrillas and exchange imprisoned guerrillas for guerrilla hostages. Will they continue demonstrating now that the guerrillas have freed what they say are their last political hostages?

Policarpa Salvatierra, a seamstress who spied on the Spanish during the revolution, was captured and executed. When someone offers you a pola, or a beer, they're using her nickname.

Rafael Uribe Uribe, a legendary Liberal Party leader in both peace and war assassinated in Bogotá in 1914. 

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

A Celebration for Carlos Pizarro

Party scene: Carlos Pizarro's tomb today. 

Bogotá's Central Cemetery came to life today - but in another era - as llanera music boomed from a corner, where suppporters of Carlos Pizarro celebrated (and that was what it was like) the 22nd anniversary of the M-19 presidential candidate's assassination.

Flowers and photos on Pizarro's tomb. 

Pizarro's assassination in 1990 by paramilitaries rocked the country, which had breathed a sigh of relief when the guerrilla group turned in its arms and converted itself into a political party. Would the M-19 now put their uniforms back on and return to the mountains? (Navarro Wolff, another M-19 veteran, recently revealed that Pizarro had made a secret pact with him to return to the armed struggle in case one of them were assassinated.) Only a few years before, the M-19 had attacked Colombia's Justice Palace on Plaza Bolivar, an episode which ended with nearly 100 dead and the building in flames. But the M-19 continued in the democratic system, several of their members becoming congressmen and governors. Today, ex-M-19 leader Gustavo Petro is mayor of Bogotá.

From Pizarro's tomb, Jose Mercado's
bust is just barely visible. 

A generation of young leftists seems to have idealized the M-19, who were young, colorful and media-friendly - but also committed acts, such as the Justice Palace attack, which look like terrorism today.

The bus on Jose Mercado's tomb looks toward Pizarro's
tomb, which is behind that of Santander. I've always suspected
that whoever buried Mercado did this deliberately. 

And what would Jose Mercado think about all of this? He was an Afro-Colombian union leader whom the M-19 kidnapped in 1976, accusing him of accepting 'imperialist' money and of 'betraying his people.' They held him captive for months, while calling for a 'popular trial' consisting of people writing on buildings' walls whether or not Mercado should be killed. Finally, on the anniversary of the M-19's founding, they murdered Mercado and threw his body onto the street.

The M-19 don't mention Mercado's murder in their tributes to themselves. But Mercado is buried not far away in the Central Cemetery, and his bust seems to look at Pizarro's tomb. What could Mercado be thinking about the celebration taking place there?

Hero? 

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Deadly Democracy

A propaganda tricycle in Bogota, where campaigning has been generally peaceful.

While the mayoral elections in Bogotá have been carried out with a relative order and civility, that's not true in many parts of rural Colombia, where the campaigns have turned deadly.

El Tiempo reports that an astounding 41 candidates have been murdered during the campaign. In most countries, when even a single political candidate gets assassinated, it makes national news. But here, we've heard little about it.

The murdered include Luis Gonzalo Marinez, a Liberal Party mayoral candidate in a town near the Ecuadorean border in Nariño Department, who was shot by several men while campaigning Oct. 13th. (That same day, a mayoral candidate in Salento said that armed men tried to kill him and the current mayor.)

On Sept. 30, Giraldo de Jesus Gomez, a candidate for city council in Antioquia Department, was murdered by thieves who entered his home.

On July 11, Fernando Vargas Restrepo, running for mayor of the town of Yumbo near Cali, was shot and later died. Vargas Restrepo was a local congressman, and had made accusations that drug money had entered the campaign.

Pres. Juan Manuel Santos defended his handling of security (which people have questioned because of the guerrillas' recent killings of 20 soldiers) by claiming that the number of violent incidents connected to the elections was 'only' 97 - or 19 fewer than in the 2007 elections.

Either way, it's a sad commentary on Colombia's level of violence, which is unlikely to change much as long as outlaw groups continue managing huge flows of drug money.

El Tiempo: Narcotrafickers and FARC behind Candidates' Crimes

Ten Candidates have been Assassinated in the Valle del Cauca

Elections Under Fire

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours