Cincuenta años del M-19, la nostálgica celebración de los hombres del comandante Aureliano

El pasado 19 de abril, para conmemorar los cincuenta años del nacimiento del M, simpatizantes y ex combatientes fueron convocados a la Plaza de Bolívar,  en una mañana  soleada con amenaza de lluvia y la estridencia de música y arengas difundidas desde un potente parlante  que llamaba la atención de los turistas y alteraba la tranquilidad de la Plaza de Bolívar, cuyo monumento al libertador fue arropado por banderas y pancartas tricolores de la ANAPO marcadas con el M-19.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Greeting cordial listening friends of the podcastcroniqueando with Jairo Tarazona in a first episode
about the fifty years of the robberyof the Sword of Bolivar and the emergence
of the 19th revelations of a survivor. We tell them how the extraction of
the Libertador sabre from the Quinta deBolívar in central Bogotá changed the recent history
of the country to the point thatthe guerrilla group that emerged from this fearless

(00:23):
action today has Gustavo Petro Urrego,a former fighter of the eMe who,
by the hand of the coalition ofthe historic pact, achieved power for the
Colombian left for the first time.Then, in the second and final chapter
of this event, we have thetestimonies of some of the former EM nineteen

(00:44):
who met fifty years later in BolívarSquare, on 19 April, at a
cultural political event. We invite youto listen next in the podcast chronicling with
Jairo or Tarazona the episode fifty yearslater the nostalgic celebration of the 19th eMe

(01:04):
and the commander Aureliano Romandante Carlo Romanof treading Oh command of command of demand

(01:38):
pepita under your men, there wasa world of elucidated, always thinking of
his people. He took nothing ofhis own. Admirer of Bonema, son
of a soldier. The imponite disciplineana. Now welcome, the morning was

(02:01):
sunny, but with clouds that threatenedwith rain, as it is usually April,
the music and herrings that come outof a powerful speaker, attract the
attention of the tourists and alter thetranquility of the Plaza de Bolívar, whose
monument to liberator and some desserts havebeen tucked up with flags and tricolor banners

(02:23):
marked with the m nineteen or theysent the appointment was at ten, but
at noon, when the drizzle isbeginning, there are barely a hundred men
and women who made part of theranks and command of the subversive group who

(02:45):
attended the summons. Some came fromtheir regions where they made war, others
from the suburbs of Old Santa Fe. Rigo carries in his right hand a
staff with the flag of the 19thm. Their companions greet them effusively.
They hadn' t seen each otherin a long time. You can tell
her age, but her dark skinis hidden in something. Those wrinkles fought

(03:09):
Jaime Bateman' s Command in thesouth of the country with lucidity recalls those
times of battle. Alberto de FeoHernández, better known as Rigo all his
life Rico. How old you aresixty- three, at what age you
entered eMe nineteen, I would believe, about eighteen or nineteen years old,

(03:31):
and in the seventy- nine Idefinitely left as a militant because I liked
the proposal and the history story thatthey put out at that time. I
liked it so much. You wereone of the first fighters Jaime Batemanda had
to believe is not the only thingis that Jaime Bateman forms the southern front

(03:51):
between Jarjeta and Puto Mayo. Weare a number of combatant of that time
that we live some until the momentthat you remember of those times of combatant
when just lm nineteen was already aguerrilla mill to see as a movement that

(04:13):
rillino Jaime Bateman or as the organizationsuch we did not call guerrilla movement,
but it was called ems nineteen ofthe motive that the front tour and in
those fights that there was in thesouth of the country, which is the
one that remembers you most. Firstwe took Mocoa, an example mocop Tomás
I took for Jaime Bateman directly.On the second day we bombed the mobile

(04:38):
Port Limón base and in Poquito theHongale day three half night in Nauropescap all
over the world, well known bythe world. He' s the plane
that fell with the guns. Therein the Caquetán, in the river Tegua,
in the orte guasa. So,of course, we' re talking
about that plane, the Gayropeesca planewith five hundred and eighty hossiles. After

(05:00):
the plane is generated an offensive againstus to fight, to finish us,
and the army as such could not, could not annihilate by our force.
After the offensive, we won anaward for Mr Belisario Betancourt, who was

(05:24):
given by Amnesty. He knows Batemanthrows a strategy out of an Amnesty proposal,
but it was to strengthen us,not to receive the government' s
pre- sale. The government settraps with madmen, taxis, laid earth
other things as for example, eveninternationally, and a companion of ours received

(05:47):
the scholarship that to Paris Ramiro Lucio, Tal Ramiro Lucio, and we placed
him by fondness by nickname, RamiroLucio, beat or Paris and after so
of your life what he is engagedin, what left him his step through
the m nineteen. Hey, whatare you doing? He didn' t

(06:08):
leave me the inheritance of my nineteen. I' m nineteen. As history,
Homeland leaves a legacy to the country. We have the Constitution, an
eye built with us, together withthe people, the Constitution. We did
it the peasants of Colombia. Howis the nineteenth, Of course, you

(06:28):
can say that the result of thenineteenth em is today President Gustavo Petro,
of course, our democratic president,a president of change that they are not
letting do. That is the obligationand they do not fail to develop true
democracy in Colombia. What you couldn' t get with the guns, you

(06:51):
got with the votes, with theMetro election. That' s right,
of course, that' s howwe win vote levels and that' s
the story. And that, that' s what you have to do and
it won' t make war.A year and a half has already taken
President Metro to the bases of the19th EM of the people of what is

(07:12):
called the people. There is disillusionmentor what has happened in this year and
a half. No. No,not at all? Don' t you?
Don' t you? No,not at all. We' re
on expectations. It' s forthe best. We would be like the
government' s props to develop socialpolicies. In fact we have today,
because we expect that. Otoniel isanother of the eMe ex- combatants.

(07:46):
His accent reveals he' s fromthe huila. There he entered the guerrillas
very young. Today she wears awhite beard and covers her gray hair with
a pussy. He knew me asToniel and his name was Pila Pedro Antonio
Campo. Where you' re from. I' m from the Willan department.
How old he was when he joinedthe 19th eMe as a guerrilla group.

(08:09):
I wasn' t old enough,I was already, let' s
say, mature. I was abouttwenty- two years old and why enter
him half nineteen, for I havealways been a peasant. He didn'
t have a political ideology. WhenI entered the em I looked at myself
fighting Harto for the interests of theColombian people and suddenly I liked it and

(08:31):
I said if I participated in therevolutionary armed struggle at some time, I
would like the 19th eMe and whenI had the opportunity, I joined the
nineteen thousand. Who was your commander, who was the first commander. For
me was Gustavo Aria lo Antonio Bori, there he was as commander, second
commander of Raúl Germán, redon Niño, Raulito, there was Oti Patiño and

(08:56):
there was Marco Antonio Chalita and soon, of the founders of eMe nineteen,
of the founders of the 19th EM. Yes, sir, it was
up to you in which group,on which front, what his name was.
No, because I joined the frontof Gustavo Ariaudono Bori, which was
the southern front. If after that, we, after the truce with Belisario

(09:18):
Betancourt and the signing of the Hoboagreements, when the agreements with Belisario Betacourt,
which came the taking by the armyto Yarumale, were almost broken,
then from there they transferred the SouthernFront for Cauca to reinforce Commander Carlos Pizarro,
who was surrounded and from day today there. From that time I

(09:43):
remained until the time of the mobilizationin the Western Front, which was commanded
by Commander Carlos Pizarro León Gómez.What do you remember of those sad days,
those battles that were hard and thatpassed into history for Enment nineteen.
No, then, we have amemory left. Let us say tragic because

(10:07):
of the maltitude of the confrontation betweenthe two groups of the army and the
movement of one thousand nineteen. Itremains like frustration to the green that we
were facing two forces, let ussay the army, the majority of the
army of the soldiers and their andtheir officers or Netherlands officers were also faced

(10:30):
with an army that was the Bolivarianarmy that we were demonizing as the Bolivarian
army. Then we also came fromthe peasantry. Who had us facing Colombian
society, yes, and the rest, who was very hard, because that
went to blood and play there,because the ones were about to get us
out of there that was the forcesof the State, and we the 19th

(10:52):
telemel door also making a resistance fornot letting us take out which of those
comatose memories too, because that's what Yarumales was, because it was
twenty- two days fighting with allthat was the professional orchards of the state
army. We had some wounded,but very little and we had dead,

(11:13):
we had as three dead, nomore than fifty years after the creation of
the M nineteen, it was worthit being dead, so many wounded,
the taking of the Palace of Justice, so many events that occurred tragic,
it was worth it. Of courseit was worth it. Unfortunately, in
this country. Unfortunately, this hasbeen the case and we have had to
resort to violence when the oligarchy itselfhas been the source of violence in this

(11:37):
country. Looking at the situation whenthe elections were stolen from Gustavo Roja Pidilla,
who as a result the 19th eMewas born. If it hadn'
t been for the election bromp ofone thousand nine hundred and seventy LM nineteen
it would not exist as an armedpactor and as a political factor that today,

(11:58):
paradoxical is that it was achieved bythe votes, which I don'
t know if it managed by thebullets to have a President of the Republic
like Gustavo Petro, of course thatwas what the nineteen emel had said here.
We have to seek peace and cometo power through the People' s
Organization, to come to power byvoting, because through struggle it is very

(12:20):
difficult, however powerful we would havegone. Unfortunately, as a result of
the electoral practice of the 1970s.At that time, an army had to
be formed to support popular power.We' re a little out of our
minds, not pine and we've all been gathered by the Perus,

(12:46):
a mother is already the ones leftmelian of the way of life so we
don' t stay and you'll be of the menna. The singer
Jaime Montañés is a composer. Thissong we hear is from your authorship.
He belonged to the 19th eMe inthe lands of Santander from where he was

(13:07):
originally known as Antonio. He wasnot a mere warrior, but he is
an engineer and entrepreneur, known forbuilding houses of social interest, his hobby
singing revolutionary car lyrics. They sendto begin this poem of writing and of

(13:35):
all reason, so that the peopleunderstand that you of namas have time.
My name was Antonio, from thewar name of Antonio de santander A.
This was done with Borée Arthon Roaga, who is with Ben Barrín, the

(13:56):
founders of telemedia. Of course,of course, what was the name of
the front that operated there in Santandee. Not that we didn' t go
by cells on day four and thatwith different names and they operated in which
regions of santanderfi all that we camehere to operate as well. Here we

(14:18):
came to steal some bed trucks,there' s not a very sad sheath.
Once we took out some chickens andhanded the chicks to the people and
the police came and pulled the chickensout of the pot. Brothers the compa
already with chickens half cooked. Bea good record at that time and perhaps
at the 19th m. That iswhy he had a popular action sect,

(14:39):
because they were considered to be theRobin Hood. That was the target.
No, that caused a lot ofsympathy and that led us, then,
to get inside the heart of thepeople of that time. Just in LM
nineteen commissary already with those spectacular actions, what is it that you most remember
what anecdote or what marked it Gradeswas the pent- up almost three years

(15:01):
in prison and why he was imprisonedfor being captured by the Robot. North
Canton of you. He was oneof those who participated in the extraction of
weapons from North Canton, some Santanderweapons and there we were captured. The
brain was Artunduaga, no, thevery good lord. Abol was very good
and I remember working with Carlotto Platas he was already going to find Manga

(15:26):
and we contacted each other. Theybought a house near the northern canton,
a tunnel that went to the armerwhere the army weapons were. It was
engineering work and there is much boldnessnot and that was what most and most
anger of the current army. That' s why they fucked us up and

(15:48):
heard us and opened up a lotof people. There are perhaps you gave
it to the heart, the armyand a offensive began against the 19th eMe,
which left many catches, but wewere very much at the War Council.
Then came the taking of the emageof the Dominican Republic, where Rosa
measured the girl and gave me freedomfrom us. I don' t know,

(16:14):
but there was negotiation, and whenBet and Chario arrived, there was
Landistria. One of the conditions forthe political solution in the seizure of the
Dominican Embassy was the release of prisonersfrom those in the micotta. There,
in several songs, I imagined aleGrieta Merraca in another empacás is not worth
all the negotiations and ready how manyyou were there in the picota. There
were two hundred and nineteen of us. There was Carlos Toledo Plata, of

(16:37):
course, Carlos Toledo logical that hewas one of the most well- known
leaders of the 19th emel in Santander, seiloic in Mexico, that is,
not so much of my leader,but political leader. How long you spent
in prison, three years, twomonths, thirty- eight months. Unionized
directly from the extraction of weapons fromthe North Canton. Yeah, sure,
robbery, robbery, rebellion and thoseguns where they went, how many guns

(17:00):
I remember you pulled out. Thatwas a mile. No, that was
the scandal, no more, becausenow pure harps of rags, as many
that were discontinued were no good.I don' t know r At last
it was a lot, but itwas the success, the fact, the
fact of the robot of the weapons. It was what outraged the army and

(17:21):
what, on the one hand,outraged the people and, on the other
hand, we became more curious withinthe people. I didn' t say
uy, but verracos they are andif I shoot him. That was one
of the many spectacular acts that Ihad the 19th, but others came here
that we have in front of thePalace of Justice, which was practically how

(17:44):
he ended up being the 19th.So because I don' t make a
mistake. It was not thought thatthe President, since the President had not
been sent by the President, hadbeen taken away from him. Then the
Army, I' m indecisive.There you think it was worth what you
did after fifty years of celebrating thecreation of medicine. It was worth it

(18:04):
because it came to power Now thetruth is that you can love, govern
and rule well. It' sa lot like this or difficult. It
' s true, because the role, but it' s been very difficult,
because it doesn' t have themajority of Congress. But there we
go, the 19th has a President, but nothing has been done, no,

(18:26):
but there we go and there weare doing. But we came to
power. Yes, or what you' ve done, for example, for
ellendoos, if I notice that theydon' t have vision beyond the tip
of the nose. We, ifwe had the vision of coming to power,
you are also a poet, youare a songwriter. Those letters are

(18:48):
yours. Let' s say you' re also a poet, not a
poet, but a poet. It' s just that one in order to
write that one has to feel.If you feel that you automatically move it
and write it and sing it.He didn' t think how old he
was today, seventy- three yearsold, and he went into it,
and I was dicinnated to stay attwenty, the theft of the elections.
I was already with Toleva the codietmeeting can' t big tinges. And

(19:12):
now what he does politically is hispoems and his songs. No, and
I think I' m building,that is, I' m still building
to give to people living that it' s interesting and where he' s
already building the santander right now thatI' m starting to ask him for

(19:33):
an eight- hectare lot. Sothere it' s one to give him
a little house and that he doesn' t have and how they deliver him
to the house that I require firstthat he doesn' t have a family
father and that he doesn' thave and the other and we don'
t care if liberal go whatever itis and the other, because they have
a little blur that we have toteach him to erase gives us away look

(20:00):
I made the toleo silver at thattime is Querey albe loaned six hundred,
people put a hundred and seven hundredpesos we made the house and people could
pay because jot didn' t chargeinterest. It' s a very low
interest of paid people whether you've been a builder all your life and
that' s what you' vebeen dedicated to. But now it'
s not just a social problem.If I' m an engineer, but
in time I earned him the socialpart. That is born with one the

(20:22):
rejlo recho give you cathedral and ifit is social already sofial, it is
not that na with one and howmany houses has so delivered in that social
program has the tooo two hundred sixty- one. But in other neighborhoods we
' ve done and we' vebuilt quite a lot of the Medellí.
But, well, that' sbeen a lifelong struggle and it goes on

(20:45):
if jo is really cute. Yougive a little house to someone who has
nothing. That' s a goodwhore. Kill anyone who' s here
now. The people understand that you, among all, will destroy the history
of the country. For itself,the most famous and well- known of

(21:11):
the old guerrillas of the 19th centurywho are there in Plaza de Bolívar,
commemorating the fifty years of the group' s emergence is Fabio and Polito Mariño.
He participated in the peace accords inthe eighties and fours and eighty-
fives and, together with Carlos Pizarro, was spokesman for the peace signing with
President Virgilio Arco in a thousand ninehundred and ninety, when he was elected

(21:34):
councillor of Cali fifty years ago,what you were doing fifty years and three
months ago. Thank you that thisbegan on 17 January, but earlier it
had begun in seventy- three andseventy- two. Today we are actually
fulfilling fifty- four years of electoralfraud the elections of nineteen of seventy,

(21:55):
which is the main motivation in thepolitics assumed by that youth of that group
to claim not General Rojas Pinilla,but to dedicate the citizen decision that,
in the proposal made by Rojas,called to the NAPO, took the decision
to vote liberals and conservatives no longerkill themselves as before, but in democracy,

(22:19):
participate in the elections and were assaultedby the system with the fraud A
that citizen decision is that that youthclaims, recognizes and sees the name nineteen
to open. You enter as alehalf nineteen. I enter following the Bolívar
Route because I am from a townwhere Bolivar is very well known. Then

(22:45):
and here where you go to Bolivarfrom the Pisba moor to be a cassache,
then Bolivar was everywhere, there isBolivar. Here was Bolivar. Here
it is time to abolish the Bolivarto my friend since I was a child
I know Bolivar And then I meetsome manes, with a nito chéveres that
speak of Bolivar and that steal thesword of Bolivar and that they are with
Bolivar, but they are mine.Then we find myself following abolished and they

(23:10):
following the story. And how wasthat time in which part it was not
that is a process that is takingplace. I was at Pedagogical University and
it went and it went and itwent and it happened until when everything happened.
So, if we did things withoutvision, things and we managed to
sign the peace process, which isthe most important thing to read, the

(23:33):
most important action of the thousand nineis the laying down of arms, being
able and then sustaining that decision.Even Pizarro' s murder and see that
there we go until the sword cameout. Here, August 7th. There
we go, it' s fiftyyears, but it' s been fifty
years with a movement that was verypopular. Then come other facts that perhaps,

(23:55):
for example, what happens in thePalace of Justice was one of the
great mistakes many facts. The firstmistake is to go into war, but
it was the circumstances of the moment. Today there is no need to apologize
the war. It' s thestory. Of course war makes mistakes.
Of course war induces mistakes, butif one is clear where the steps go,

(24:15):
so be the mistakes. You walksoon at my fifteen years old.
We made the decision to lay downour arms because the error of war had
to be overcome. On that paththere were very painful circumstances, not just
this one. There were fighting,there were battles, there were deaths or

(24:36):
displacements. Thousands and thousands of hoursof torture are the mistakes of history,
not only of my nine, ofsociety which in its quest is also hurt.
But there we go for fifty years. With that fifty years, in
his particular case, in these fiftyyears, he considers that it was the
most important thing he did. Obviously, you were one of the members who

(24:59):
signed the ace of cloth ninety.For you what was the most important thing
he did in the 19th EM,three things and assume the struggle of a
thousand nine, leave the arms andparticipate in the Constituent. It can be
said that with President Petro' sarrival at the Presidency of the Republic he
ends a stage of the 19th EMor now begins stage every year, on

(25:23):
17 January and 19 April. Everyyear is a stage that now comes the
Constituent Assembly to help untangle the warriorsso that they see the possibility of the
total pass and the President pulls themout of the constituent. It is clear
that the proposal is the task ofcontinuing to constitute the country. The rain

(25:56):
becomes a downpour. The few areguerrillas and nostalgic militants retreat from the center
of Plaza de Bolívar to seek refuge. The sellers who brought caps and flags
with the colors of ANAPO and theeMe wolf broke. The celebration was shipwrecked
was just a meeting of few friendswho, as old men remembered those times.

(26:21):
The only consolation they have is thatthere, two blocks away, in
the house of Nariño, is oneof their former comrades in struggle, whom
they called Commander Aureliano. This swordhas so much history that today will add

(26:41):
one more reason why it took meto this square