19th of April Movement
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The 19th of April Movement, "Movimiento 19 de Abril" or M-19, was a Colombian guerrilla movement. After its demobilization it became a political party, the M-19 Democratic Alliance, "Alianza Democrática M-19", or AD/M-19.
The M-19 traced its origins to the allegedly fraudulent presidential elections of April 19, 1970. During the elections, the National Popular Alliance (ANAPO) of former military dictator Gustavo Rojas Pinilla, was denied an electoral victory.
The ideology of the M-19 was a mixture of populism and nationalistic revolutionary socialism. By mid 1985, the M-19 was the largest guerrilla group in Colombia after the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, when the number of active members was estimated at between 1,500 and 2,000, including a more noticeable urban presence.
It had become known for executing several awe-inspiring actions that provoked conflicting feelings of amazement and anger among the different sectors of Colombian public opinion.
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[edit] Armed Activity
Some analysts consider that the M-19's history can be summarized as a failed armed revolutionary struggle during the early to mid 1980s in Colombia, and a relatively constructive reincorporation into civil society and political life during the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Among the actions performed by the M-19, some significant events stand out. On New Year's Eve 1979, the group dug a tunnel into a Colombian Army weapons depot, taking over 5000 weapons. It was considered by analysts as one of the first signs of the true potential for armed action that this group had. In a highly symbolic action, the M-19 also stole one of Simón Bolívar's swords from a museum, an event which was used by the group in order to symbolize what they termed as a civilian uprising against a regime perceived as unjust.
[edit] Domincan Republic embassy siege
The group is also recognized for other high profile activities, as the Dominican embassy siege. The guerrillas stormed the Dominican Republic's embassy during a cocktail party on February 27, 1980. They took the largest recorded number of diplomats held hostage to date in Colombia, which accounted for 14 ambassadors, including the United States'. Eventually, after tense negotiations with the government of Julio César Turbay Ayala, the hostages were peacefully released and the hostage takers were allowed to leave the country for exile into Cuba. Some of them later returned and actively rejoined the M-19's activities. Many contemporary rumors and later accounts from the participants in this event have suggested that the Colombian government might have submitted to another of the M-19 demands, by allegedly giving the group 1 to 2.5 million U.S. dollars in exchange for the release of the hostages.
[edit] Palace of Justice siege
The M-19, as a guerilla group, is also recognized for the Palace of Justice siege. In this attack, on November 6, 1985, some 300 lawyers, judges, and Supreme Court magistrates were taken hostage by 35 armed rebel commandos at the Palace of Justice, the building that houses the Supreme Court of Colombia. They demanded that president Belisario Betancur be tried by the magistrates for allegedly betraying the country's desire for peace. When this situation became publicly known, the Colombian Army surrounded the Palace of Justice's perimeter with soldiers and EE-9 Cascavel armored reconnaissance vehicles. For a short while, unsuccessful negotiations were attempted, but they reached nowhere, despite the desperate pleas that were transmitted telephonically by some of the notable hostages involved.
The Betancur administration and it council found themselves in a difficult position. They were not willing to submit to the rebels' demands, as they allegedly considered that this would set a further precedent for the M-19 and considerably jeopardize the government's position. Eventually, after tense discussions, it was decided during an emergency meeting that the military would be allowed to handle the situation and attempt to recover the Palace by force. Some analysts[citation needed] have speculated that the military's top brass may have pressured Betancurt in order to finally allow this, but this is not completely clear.
This led to a highly controversial turn of events which, to a lesser or greater degree, continues to be debated in Colombia to this date. In the ensuing heavy crossfire between the incoming soldiers and the entrenched rebels, which included supporting gunfire from the EE-9 Cascavels, the building was set aflame, more than 100 people died, and valuable legal records were destroyed.
The M-19 lost several of its top commanders during the event, and blamed the government for the ensuing bloodshed. The surviving civilian victims and their families held different positions; some blamed the M-19, some blamed the Betancur administration, many blamed both. There is apparently no clear consensus on the matter.
It has been argued that druglords, such as Pablo Escobar, may have masterminded the operation in order to get rid of several criminal investigations recorded in the documents lost during the event. A Special Commission of Inquiry, established by the Betancur government, released a June 1986 report which concluded that this was apparently not the case.[1]
Mauricio Gaona and Carlos Medellín Becerra, the sons of two of the murdered Supreme Court magistrates, have pushed for further investigations into the presumed links between the M-19 and the Medellín Cartel drug lords, arguing that they have evidence that may prove relevant upon judicial review. Congressman Gustavo Petro, a former M-19 guerrilla, has denied these accusations and dismissed them as based upon the inconsistent testimonies of drug lords. Petro says that the surviving members of the M-19 do admit to their share of responsibility for the tragic events of the siege, on behalf of the entire organization, but deny any links to the drug trade.[2]
[edit] Demobilization and Participation in Politics
The M-19 eventually gave up its weapons, received pardons and became a political party in the late 80's, the M-19 Democratic Alliance ("Alianza Democrática M-19", or (AD/M-19)), which renounced the armed struggle. Eventually the M-19 returned Bolívar's sword as a symbol of its demobilization and desire to change society through its participation in legal politics.
In 1990, one of its more prominent figures, presidential candidate and former guerrilla commander Carlos Pizarro Leongómez, while aboard an airline flight, was murdered by assassins, supposedly on the orders of drug cartel and paramilitary leaders (disappeared AUC commander Carlos Castaño publicly admitted his own responsibility for the murder in a 2002 book and interviews). Some of its other members were also subject to multiple threats or likewise murdered. Antonio Navarro Wolff replaced the deceased Pizarro as candidate and leader of the party, finishing third in that year's presidential race.
Despite the continuation of smaller scale violence against it, the AD/M-19 survived through the 90's, achieved favorable electoral results on a local level and actively participated as a high profile political force in the forging of Colombia's modern 1991 constitution, which replaced a conservative document ostensibly dating from 1886. Antonio Navarro was one of the three co-presidents of the Constituent Assembly of Colombia, together with representatives from the Colombian Liberal Party and the Colombian Conservative Party.
Several analysts consider that the AD/M-19 reached its peak at this point in time and, while never disappearing completely from the political background, it began to gradually decline in political influence.
After nearly a decade of existence as a political party, in 2003 the AD/M-19 became part of the Independent Democratic Pole coalition.
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
- ^ Carrigan, Ana (1993). The Palace of Justice: A Colombian Tragedy. Four Walls Eight Windows. 0941423824. p. 279
- ^ "M-19 cambió drogas por armas", El País, October 6, 2005. Retrieved on October 7.
