Bogota Rebels Hoped to Make Nation ‘Listen’

Leaders of a leftist rebel group that seized the Palace of Justice in a bloody 27-hour siege contended Sunday that their action, which left more than 100 people dead, was the only way to make the country “listen to us.”

In a clandestine meeting with several foreign reporters, members of the April 19 Movement, or M-19, also said they were stunned by the government’s decision to end the takeover by launching a tank and troop assault Thursday afternoon.

A rebel who called himself Alonso, a member of the M-19’s 35-member national board of directors, said the group planned to hold the Palace of Justice for several hours of battle, then expected the government to begin negotiations.

‘Never Expected Tanks’

“We never expected the bestiality of driving tanks through the front door (of the four-story court headquarters),” Alonso said.

Troops and police used rockets and armored cars in four assaults on the building to end the siege. Among the dead were 12 Supreme Court judges, including Supreme Court President Alfonso Reyes, and up to 30 other civilian hostages.

Alonso said 35 guerrillas, including eight women, helped seize the building Wednesday. All the rebels, including their leader, Andres Almarales, and about a dozen troops and police were killed.

The guerrilla leaders also denied government charges that the takeover was financed by drug traffickers.

Alonso added, “It never was planned to assassinate the judges. Their lives were the most important.”

Seven M-19 leaders attended the meeting with foreign correspondents. The men each arrived with bags containing weapons and at least three grenades.

“We don’t like to, but we came armed for security reasons,” said Alonso. “We are in war.”

The M-19, with about 3,000 members, signed a cease-fire with the government of President Belisario Betancur last year. But it broke off the agreement and went back to fighting last June, charging that the army had violated the truce and that the government had done nothing to help the nation’s poor .

Alonso said M-19 began planning the takeover four months ago.

“The main idea was to publicly sue the government in front of the country,” he said. “We were suing Belisario for not complying with the peace agreement.”

Alonso said the rebels wanted the 24-member Supreme Court and the 20-member State Council, Colombia’s two highest courts, to study its demands for social reform and rule on a 52-page “lawsuit” drafted by the rebels.

“We had to do it because it was the only way they would listen to us in the country,” he said. “We wanted the court to go into session and resolve the suit.”

Alonso said the rebels now have little hope of dialogue with the government, and added, “Our best defense now is to keep fighting.”

President at Mass

Meanwhile, an emotional President Betancur told mourners at a Sunday Mass for victims of the ordeal that democracy in Colombia has survived the “atrocious and irrational attack.”

Speaking in a choked voice in the Bogota Cathedral, 500 feet from the Palace of Justice, scene of the bloody siege, Betancur said he prayed that the “sacrifice” of the victims would lead to an end to violence in the country.

After the memorial service, broadcast on national radio and television, Betancur said in a speech at the cathedral that he did everything possible to save the lives of those trapped inside the building with the rebels.

But he said the government “waited in vain for a response to a dialogue and solution within the law that never was accepted” by the M-19 guerrillas, who take their name from April 19, 1970, elections that they contend were fraudulent.

Survivors of the siege have told of trying desperately to hide or escape the fierce fighting between the guerrillas and the army. One of them, Supreme Court Judge Humberto Murcia, told in a newspaper interview of hostages begging on their knees for the guerrillas to spare them, and pleading with the army to halt its assault.

Murcia told the Bogota daily El Tiempo that he hid with three others in his office when the takeover began at midday Wednesday.

Walls Crashed Down

“We just lay there quietly on the floor because bursts of submachine gun fire went on without stopping,” the judge said. “Then there were explosions that sent parts of the walls crashing down.

“It was perhaps 11 o’clock at night when we felt the heat and heard flames crackling outside the office door. The smoke was so thick that we thought we would choke to death. We crawled into the hallway and down from the fourth floor to the second.”

Murcia could not walk. He has only one leg, and his wooden leg was destroyed by bullets in the guerrillas’ takeover, he said.

“We crawled along through the smoke, the flames and the bullets. When we got to the second floor some guerrillas grabbed us and put us in a bathroom guarded by three guerrillas.

“The fire was getting closer. The guerrillas took us to the third floor and put us in a bathroom with about 60 other hostages. We were pressed against each other, almost one person on top of another.”

Murcia said that was when he first saw guerrilla leader Almarales. Later, Almarales grouped several of the justices together, saying, “Don’t worry. The government is not going to let you die because you are the head of the third estate,” the judge recalled.

Begged Army to Stop

When it appeared that the army attack was going to succeed, Almarales told the justices to stand in the doorway and shout at the army to stop shooting.

“We begged the army to stop, and we also got down on our knees and begged the guerrillas to let us go,” Murcia told El Tiempo.

“We were so desperate that we begged Almarales to surrender, but he insulted us and shouted that the M-19 never surrenders and that we would all die or we would all get out alive.”

Back in the bathroom, an army cannon shell blew out the wall and “many of the 60 hostages there were killed,” Murcia said.

As the army cannon and rocket fire increased, Murcia said Almarales shouted, “I am going to play my last card!”

With that, the guerrillas surrounded the justices. Murcia did not say how many justices.

Saw Friends Slain

“Suddenly there was an explosion that knocked me senseless. We were lying there in the smoke with broken glass falling all around when a guerrilla walked up to Manuel Gaona and pointed his gun at Gaona’s head,” Murcia said. Gaona was a Supreme Court justice.

“I saw him shoot and I saw something fly out of Gaona’s head.

“Then there was a deafening explosion above us, and when I lifted my head I saw Mauricio Montoya (another justice). He collapsed and died in a pool of blood. There they were, my two friends, Manuel Gaona and Montoya, both dead at my feet.”

The sound of explosions and submachine gun fire filled the room, Murcia said.

“I crawled over bodies toward the door. A guerrilla pointed his rifle at me. He told me to hide myself. I looked all around but there was no place to hide. I crawled under some bodies.

“Then I felt the shock waves of a submachine gun firing right over me, and I thought, ‘Well, this is where I play my last card.’

“I stumbled down the stairs, falling, rolling over the many dead bodies, until I came face to face with a soldier aiming his rifle straight at me.

“I shouted, ‘Soldier, don’t shoot! I’m a judge, I’m wounded.’ He lowered his gun, approached me cautiously and when he was sure, he picked me up and carried me to the main door and freedom.”