Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

M-19 • 407and the Council of State. Colombian security forces attacked, killingat least 19 terrorists. In the course of this operation, 11 Supreme Courtjustices were killed along with 50 hostages and all of the terrorists.The most questionable undertaking of the M-19 has been its relationswith Colombian drug traffickers. By 1982 evidence emergedlinking Colombian drug trafficker Jaime Guillot Lara with the M-19as well as with four close aides of Fidel Castro. In 1982 a U.S. federalgrand jury in Miami handed down indictments against Cubanofficials for assisting Lara’s smuggling operations in exchange forhis providing funds and Cuban arms to the M-19. Whether this was acase of the M-19 extortion practiced on the drug traffickers or else atemporary tactical alliance between criminals and terrorists, in eithercase the relationship went sour. The drug traffickers founded theirown death squad, Muerte a Secuestradores (MAS), which was directedin particular against the M-19, apparently in retaliation for theM-19 having kidnapped for ransom key members of the drug rings.The M-19 had around 1,000 members and was made up of twofronts, a southern front in Putumayo Department and a western frontin Caldas, Cauca, Valle de Cauca, Quinido, and Tolima departments.These fronts were subdivided into “columns” for different municipalities.Its founders included former ANAPO congressman CarlosToleda Plata, who led the M-19 until his capture in 1982, and JaimeBateman Cayón, a former FARC member who remained the M-19’sprincipal military commander.The M-19 participated in the “national dialogue” between the Colombiangovernment and other major leftist guerrilla groups and signedthe truce of May 1984. By September 1989, the M-19 had signed aseries of accords with the Colombian government allowing it to participatelegally as a political party. The M-19 announced its intentionto demobilize in exchange for pardons and guarantees of protectionand finally surrendered its weapons to the government on 8 March1990. Subsequently, agents of drug traffickers killed M-19 presidentialcandidate Carlos Pizarro León-Gómez on 26 April 1990. Credit for themurder was later claimed in 2002 by the leader of the Self-DefenseForces of Colombia, Carlos Castãno, who himself later disappeared.After 1990 most of the M-19 movement set aside guerrilla warfarein favor of becoming a political party, the AD/M-19, and returnedBolívar’s sword as symbolic of the end of their armed activities. TheM-19 member Antonia Navarro served as one of three co-presidents