Disappeared or Just Dead?

A tank fires into the Palacio de Justicia on Plaza Bolivar in Nov. 1985. The M-19 guerrillas had taken over the building and were holding the members of the Supreme Court hostage. 

Colombia's defense in an international human rights court has made waves by claiming that nobody was 'disappeared' during the 1985 retaking of the Palacio de Justicia from M-19 guerrillas who had invaded it.

The M-19's November 1985 attack on the Justice Palace and the ensuing retaking by the military remains an open sore in Colombian politics and society. Last year, a court ordered the military to make a Public apology for human rights violations committed by the military. The ruling, which has never been fulfilled, had particular relevance because current Bogotá Mayor Gustavo Petro was a leader of the M-19 guerrillas. Several other one-time M-19 leaders are now in Congress.

More than 100 people died in the episode, including all but one of the guerrillas, many Justice Palace employees, visitors and 11 of the 12 Supreme Court justices. Some simply disappeared without a trace.

Guerrilla Irma Franco and
cafeteria administrator
Carlos Rodriguez. Both
apparently left the
Justice Palace alive but
were never seen again. 

But a number of people from inside the Justice Palace were reported seen alive outside the building or inside the neighboring Casa del Florero, which the military was using as its command post. Some of those apparent survivors were never seen again or were found dead in the burned building, as if killed in the fired which consumed the building.

Court rulings, public opinion and news reports all seem to agree that the military committed human rights violations, including disappearances, during the counterattack. Other high Colombian officials have acknowledged two cases of disappearances: a guerrilla and the administrator of the building's cafeteria, both of whom were reported seen alive outside the building. That's why the Colombian state's argument last week in a case before the Inter-American Court of Justice surprised many, and suggested that the lawyers were defending accused military officers rather than Colombia as a whole.

The government's lawyer argued that the disappeared had all died in the conflagration which destroyed the Justice Palace building. The fire's cause is still debated. According to some sources, cocaine king Pablo Escobar helped finance the M-19's attack in exchange for the guerrillas promising to destroy incriminating legal documents.

Two military officers have been tried, convicted and given prison terms for crimes committing during the retaking. But the military and conservative political parties ask why the M-19, who started it all, have not had to face justice.

Llamas walk past the rebuilt Justice Palace on Plaza Bolivar.

'A tragic sacrifice by forces of subversion,' who
destroyed evidence against narcotraffickers. 

A plaque on the City Hall building lists the
names of 12 people who were allegedly 'disappeared.' 

A plaque in a sidewalk denounces 25
years of impunity in the cases of
 disappeared people. 

Three memorial plaques on Plaza Bolivar, within yards of the rebuilt Justice Palace, show the continuing polarization over the tragedy. One plaque denounces 'impunity' in the cases of the disappeared. Another, on the City Hall building, lists the name of 12 people who "were disappeared" during the violence. And a third, adjoining plaque, memorializes "the tragic sacrifice by forces of subversion of justices of the Supreme Court...defenders of the law. The palace was destroyed by the flames, as were the files, whose destruction was sought by the assailants."

(The reference to the files refers to allegations that drug cartel kingpin Pablo Escobar had financed the attack in order to destroy evidence against him.)


By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

November 1985

November, 1985 was a cataclysmic month for Colombia: First came the M-19 guerrillas' attack on the Palace of Justice, which ended with the building in flames and more than 100 people dead. Then, a few weeks later, the eruption of the Nevado del Ruis volcano, which triggered disastrous flooding of Armero and other towns, killing some 23,000 people.  


Santa Marta-born artist Josefina Jacquin has portrayed that month in Andy Warhol-style works now on display in the Jorge Eliecer Gaitan house/museum in Teusaquillo, which commemorates the populist presidential candidate, who was assasinated in 1948. The events are also personal for Jacquin, who now lives in northern California: her brother Alfonso Jacquin was one of the M-19's leaders, and died during the palace attack and military counter-attack. His body has never been recovered. 

The artist's brother, Alfonso Jacquin, an M-19 guerrilla leader disappeared during the group's 1985 attack on the Palace of Justice. 

Colombia's then-Pres. Betancur. The guerrillas demanded that he come over to the Justice Palace to undergo a guerrilla trial, he refused and the military attacked.

A visitor takes a picture of a portrait of Pablo Escobar. The drug lord apparently helped finance the M-19's attack in order to destroy the documents in the Justice Palace.

Omayra Sanchez, a 13-year-old girl trapped by mudflows caused by the volcanic eruption. She agonized for 60 hours before dying, and her death came bo symbolize the government's failure to warn residents and its slow response.  

Part of the Gaitan house/museum. The complex has never been completed, in part due to a fight between Gaitan's daughter and the National University for control of the site. It may be used as a law school.

Jorge Eliecer Gaitan's home, now a museum. 

Gaitan's grave. He was buried standing up, in order to 'plant' his ideas. 

Admission to the museum is free.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

A Raw Wound Reopens

Soldiers attacking the Justice Palace in 1985.

In a dramatic and incendiary decision, a Bogotá court has ordered Colombia's military to publicly ask forgiveness for human rights violations committed during the retaking of the Justice Palace after a 1985  guerrilla attack.

Bogotá's City Hall: New mayor
Gustavo Petro was a leader of the M-19 guerrillas. 

The M-19 guerrillas had violently invaded the Justice Palace, on Plaza Bolivar, with the apparent assistance of narco Pablo Escobar, and demanded that democratically elected Pres. Belisario Betancur give himself up for a trial by the guerrillas. Instead, the military counterattacked violently. The building went up in flames - the cause is still controversial - and about 100 people died, including 11 of the 12 high court justices. At the time, the military were heroes. But since then evidence has emerged of human rights violations committed by the military, and a consensus has formed that the military used too much violence in the palace's retaking.

The new Justice Palace building. 

Col. Alfonso Plazas Vega, who commanded the counterattack, was convicted of violating human rights, but several other military officers were tried and acquitted.

A plaque in City Hall condemns
the guerrillas' 1985 attack. 

However, the M-19 guerrillas' fate has been very different. A few years after the disasterous attack, the group demobilized and turned into a political party. They participated in the 1991 writing of Colombia's new and quite progressive Constitution, and today several one-time leaders of the M-19 are in government - including Bogotá Mayor Gustavo Petro.

Military officials ask how it is that the guerrillas, who started it all, are getting off scott-free, while the military who retook the palace are being tried and asked to apologize.

Retired military officials have rejected the court's ruling. (The court also ordered ex-Pres. Betancur's role to be presented to the International Criminal Court.)

A plaque on Seventh Ave. commemorating the people who
disappeared during the military counterattack. 

The El Tiempo newspaper criticized the ruling in a strong editorial, and asked why the guerrillas, who staged the attack, should not have to apologize as well.

"Ordering the Army to carry out an act of public contrition for an attack initiated by guerrillas is both humilliating and excessive," El Tiempo wrote.

ordenar al Ejército que haga un acto de contrición pública por una toma de inspiración guerrillera es tanto humillante como excesivo. 

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

How Far (and Fast) They Fall!

The Nule cousins - not standing so tall anymore. (Photo: Semana.com)

A year ago, the Nules headed an important corporation which was carrying out part of Bogotá's most important infrastructure project: building a Transmilenio express bus line to the airport.

Ivan Moreno on his way to jail.  (Photo: El Pais)

Today, the three Nule cousins who ran the business are in prison, the result of an expanding scandal over alleged kickbacks paid to politicians. One of those who allegedly received kickbacks was Senator Ivan Moreno, one-time Vice-Minister of health and later Minister of Labor, and who also happens to be the little brother of Bogotá Mayor Samuel Moreno. Yesterday, Ivan Moreno was arrested, too, and is now residing in his own jail cell.

El Dorado Ave: the canyon which swallowed the Nules and Morenos.

Counterattack on the Palace.

In 1985  General Jesús Armando Arias Cabrales became a national hero for commanding the retaking of the Justice Palace from the M-19 guerrillas. Today, Armando Arias was sentenced to 35 years in prison for the forced disappearance of a cafeteria employee and a guerrilla who disappeared during the military's counterattack. He is the second military official convicted for human rights violations committed during the retaking of the palace. Others are slated for trial.

Escaping from the Justice Palace. Some of those who came out alive were later found dead.

Sidewalk plaque in memorium to those 'disappeared' in the Justice Palace episode.

Of course, there is a huge irony in the palace episode: a few years after the attack, the M-19 guerrillas demobilized and turned into a political party and today some of the M-19's ex-leaders are in Congress, directly across Plaza Bolívar from the Justice Plaza.

And, in Colombia's highly inbred politics, these two very different episodes have surprising connections. For one, the ex-M-19 guerrillas belong to Morenos' political party, the Polo Democratico Alternativo. And the M-19 was born out of alleged fraud against Colombian-dictator-turned-presidential-candidate Gustavo Rojas Pinilla, who happens to be the Moreno brothers' grandfather.  

These stories are far from finished. One matter is the issue of prison conditions: there've been scandals recently about the pampered conditions in at least one military prison. And the Nules' prison accomodations also caused a stir: the three of them have their own private in-prison house, each with his own bedroom and bath, as well as common areas. That's not only far better than the way ordinary prisoners live, but luxurious compared to the housing of many Colombians outside prison.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

History According to the M-19

The M-19's propaganda tent in front of the new Justice Palace, where the group staged its bloodiest attack.

Probably, it could only happen in Colombia - or Locombia, as some call it.

Soldiers lead survivors out of the Justice Palace. Some were later executed by the army.

In 1985 an idealistic, armed guerrilla group called the M-19 attacked the Palace of Justice on Plaza Bolívar, taking the justices and employees hostage and making a series of political demands. The government counterattacked violently. When it was over, the palace was destroyed and about one hundred people had been killed, including 11 of the 12 justices and some guerrillas and building employees.

An M-19 guerrilla, looking like Che Guevara. 

Previously, the M-19 had committed kidnappings and murdered at least one hostage, attacked the Dominican Republic's embassy, taking ambassadors hostage, and maintained urban and rural guerrilla bands which battled with government troops.

A similar group operating today would undoubtedly be on the U.S.'s list of terror organizations, its members hunted thru city and jungle.

But the M-19 demobilized and turned into a political party. That party disappeared and several of its one-time leaders are now on the other side of Plaza Bolivar, in Congress. One, Gustavo Petro, even ran for president.

The M-19 launched their movement
by stealing the sword from a statue
of Simon Bolivar.

Is this an argument for engaging terrorist groups instead of bombing them? Can anybody conceive of FARC leaders Manuel Marulanda or Alfonso Cano Colombia's Congress? Or bin Laden in Afghanistan's Parliament? For all of those guys' sins, perhaps we'd all be better off with them spouting propaganda than hiding in caves, plotting attacks.

But whatever the advantages of incorporating violent groups into the political system, it certainly doesn't seem right for them to be able to rewrite history, without a response, on the nation's most important public space.

The tomb of union leader Mercado. The M-19 kidnapped and
murdered him and tossed his body out on a street, calling him
a 'traitor to his people.' 

Certainly, the M-19 guys have every right to assert, even without offering evidence, that leftist icon Jorge Eliecer Gaitan was assassinated by 'the oligarchy' - in contradiction to the historical evidence that he was shot by a mentally ill man with unknown motives. (Read the account in the autobiography of Gabriel Garcia Marquez - no spokesman for the oligarchy!)

The M-19 can conveniently forget that it kidnapped and murdered union leader Jose Mercado, an Afro-Colombian to boot.

The M-19 can forget all the undoubted violence and human rights violations they committed as guerrillas roaming the countryside and portray themselves as innocent, idealistic, smiling young people.

They can forget that the M-19 was born out of an alleged fraud against a one-time military dictator, who shut down newspapers and massacred protesting college students just a few blocks from Plaza Bolivar.

Plaza Bolivar, Simon Bolivar's statue, and the Justice Palace which was left destroyed after the M-19's attack.

They can ignore the evidence that cocaine king Pablo Escobar helped finance the M-19's attack on the Justice Palace, for less-than-idealistic reasons of his own.

They can portray Colombian history as a conspiracy by an evil oligarchy against idealists like themselves. But history is lots more complex than that.

Yes, the M-19 had idealism and contributed in its way to the development of Colombia's present democracy. But that doesn't justify whitewashing history.

In a free country, the M-19 has a right to rewrite history as they choose. And they should feel more than privileged to be allowed to exhibit their distortions on the nation's plaza mayor. But history deserves the right to a reply - someplace more prominent than on an obscure blog in English.

The M-19 exhibition with the Cathedral in background. 

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

1985 Comes Back to Haunt

In 1985, the M-19 guerrilla group stormed the Justice Palace, on Bogotá's Plaza Bolivar, and took the whole Supreme Court hostage.

The military counterattacked, actually parking tanks on the plaza and firing into the building. In the end, the building was destroyed and about 100 people died, including guerrillas, building employees and all but one of the Supreme Court justices. Some of the dead had apparently been brought out alive by soldiers from the palace and executed in the neighboring Casa del Florero (House of the Flower Pot), because the military suspected them of having collaborated with the guerrillas. Apparently, too, cocaine king Pablo Escobar helped to finance the attack.

The episode has become known as the Holocaust of the Justice Palace, and its legacy continues haunting Colombia in various ways. A few years after the attack, the M-19 demobilized and became a political party. Today, some ex-leaders of the M-19 are in Congress, and one, Gustavo Petro, ran for president on the Polo Democratico party's ticket.

That was an ironic turn-around. Then, a few days ago, a court sentenced Alfonzo Plazas Vega, the general who had commanded the palace's retaking to 30 years in prison for the extra-judicial executions.

That's a huge turn-around for the country: The guerrillas who took the palace now in Congress, and the general who drove them out in prison.

This blog written by Mike Ceaser, of Bogota Bike Tours