WORLD IN BRIEF : COLOMBIA : M-19 Guerrilla Band Lays Down Its Arms
From Times Staff and Wire Reports
A leftist guerrilla group responsible for seizing Colombia’s Palace of Justice in a bloody 1985 attack laid down its arms after a 16-year battle with the government and pledged to fight for peace as a political party. The group, M-19 or the April 19 Movement, is the first leftist guerrilla group to disarm and the only one of six Colombian insurgent groups to accept a government peace plan. M-19 promised to abandon armed action and transform itself into a political party in exchange for amnesty.
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