Herbert Braun - Our guerrillas, our sidewalks: a journey into the violence of Colombia

1994 by the University Press of Colorado

P.O. Box 849

Niwot, Colorado 80544

All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America.

The University Press of Colorado is a cooperative publishing enterprise supported, in part, by Adams State College, Colorado State University, Fort Lewis College, Mesa State College, Metropolitan State College of Denver, University of Colorado, University of Northern Colorado, University of Southern Colorado, and Western State College of Colorado.

Cover photograph by Herbert Braun.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Braun, Herbert, 1948

Our guerrillas, our sidewalks: a journey into the violence of Colombia / Herbert Braun.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 0-87081-356-0. ISBN 0-87081-357-9 (pbk.)

1. Gambini, Jake, 1932Kidnapping, 1988. 2. Hostage

negotiationsColombia. 3. GuerrillasColombia. 4. Violence Colombia. I. Title.

HV6604.C72G363 1994

364.1'54'09861dc20

94-33877

CIP

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials. ANSI Z39.481984

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

This book is based on a number of different sources: (1) taped interviews that I conducted with the protagonists during the week of Thanksgiving 1988, three weeks after the events described herein came to a close; (2) my notes taken during the events, including taped recordings of all but one of the telephone conversations that served as the basis of the negotiations with the Colombian guerrillas; (3) interviews with leaders of the guerrilla movement conducted by journalists and published in Colombia; (4) a Colombian governmentsponsored report on contemporary forms of violence intended for wide public distribution; and (5) newspaper reports and magazine articles published in Colombia and in the United States that I read while the events were taking place and shortly thereafter. I am responsible for the translations from Spanish into English. Notations on the sources used appear at the end.

I have changed the names of those who helped us during these events in order to ensure their privacy. I have kept the aliases that the guerrillas used as they negotiated with us. Their anonymity is thereby preserved.

I knew what had happened just outside the village thousands of miles away when the phone rang a few hours later in my home in Charlottesville. It was still dark in Colombia that early in the morning. Most everyone was asleep, even though rural people out there rise early. They surrounded the entire area, gained control of the roads, and made sure that nothing would go wrong. Before anyone but a few of his guards could know what had happened, they were gone.