Armed Activity
Some analysts believe that the M-19's history may be divided into two parts: the first was a failed armed revolutionary struggle during the early to mid-1980s, while the second was a relatively constructive reincorporation into civil society and political life during the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Among the actions performed by the M-19, some significant events stand out. In a highly symbolic action, the M-19 stole one of Simón Bolívar's swords from a museum in 1974, an event which was used by the group to symbolize what they called a civilian uprising against a regime perceived as unjust. On New Year's Eve 1979, the group dug a tunnel into a Colombian Army weapons depot, taking over 5000 weapons. It was considered one of the first signs of the group's true potential for armed action. In February 1976, the M-19 kidnapped the union leader Jose Raquel Mercado, who was the president of Confederation of Workers of Colombia (CTC), and on 19 April 1976, executed him. The event shocked the country. The group accused Mercado of taking bribes and collaborating with the CIA.
Read more about this topic: 19th Of April Movement
Famous quotes containing the words armed and/or activity:
“There are lone figures armed only with ideas, sometimes with just one idea, who blast away whole epochs in which we are enwrapped like mummies. Some are powerful enough to resurrect the dead. Some steal on us unawares and put a spell over us which it takes centuries to throw off. Some put a curse on us, for our stupidity and inertia, and then it seems as if God himself were unable to lift it.”
—Henry Miller (1891–1980)
“History does nothing; it does not possess immense riches, it does not fight battles. It is men, real, living, who do all this.... It is not “history” which uses men as a means of achieving—as if it were an individual person—its own ends. History is nothing but the activity of men in pursuit of their ends.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)