Colombia Marks 40 Years Since Palace of Justice Siege

6 hours ago7 min read

Forty years on, the ghosts of the Palace of Justice siege still walk the halls of Colombian memory, a stark reminder of a nation torn asunder. For thirty harrowing hours from November 6 to 7, 1985, the very heart of Colombia's judicial system in Bogotá became a battlefield, as 35 heavily armed M-19 guerrillas stormed the building, taking hundreds of judges, employees, and civilians hostage in a brazen act that would sear itself into the national consciousness.The ensuing military assault to retake the palace, ordered by then-President Belisario Betancur, unfolded in a chaotic storm of gunfire, explosions, and flames that left the majestic building a charred ruin and resulted in the deaths of nearly 100 people, including half of the country's Supreme Court justices. The tragedy, however, is not merely one of numbers but of profound, unanswered questions that continue to fuel protests and demands for truth from the families of the *desaparecidos*—the disappeared.In the crossfire, eleven individuals, including cafeteria workers, vanished after being seen alive in the custody of the Colombian army, a chilling detail that points to the dark underbelly of state action during the crisis. This was not an isolated incident but a violent crescendo in a complex war, with allegations persisting that the army's operation was less about rescue and more about the destruction of sensitive documents related to the government's extradition treaties with the United States concerning drug lords like Pablo Escobar.The M-19, for its part, claimed its objective was to put the Betancur administration on trial for allegedly reneging on peace agreements, a political theater staged with devastatingly real weapons. The siege’s legacy is a painful duality; it was a catalyst that ultimately pushed the M-19 to demobilize and become a political party, yet it also exposed the fragile, often brutal, nature of the Colombian state, setting a precedent for the decades of conflict with FARC and paramilitaries that followed. Today, as survivors and descendants gather at commemorations, their grief is tinged with a resilient anger, a collective cry for accountability that echoes through the decades, proving that some wounds never fully heal, they merely learn to speak in louder, more persistent voices.

#Colombia

#Palace of Justice

#M-19 guerrilla

#siege

#40th anniversary

#conflict

#Bogota

#featured

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