How Dare You!

COLOMBIA

President Alfonso Lopez Pumarejo, temporarily discommoded by something that tried to be a revolution, President Alfonso Lopez Pumarejo, temporarily discommoded by something that tried to be a revolution, returned to work in Bogota.

The Visitors. A colonel and a captain waked the President at the ungodly hour of 5 a.m. by pounding on the door of his hotel suite in Pasto (altitude: 8,400 ft.), where he had gone to watch army maneuvers. White-haired, gentle-mannered President Lopez padded sleepily to the door, peered into the barrels of two drawn revolvers, admitted his visitors, learned that he was "under arrest." Another colonel, one Diogenes Gil, had led a successful army revolt, said the visitors. The President had two hours to resign. Soldiers entered, stepped briskly to all the windows and doors and stood with their rifles raised.*

Out of various beds in the suite tumbled the Ambassador to Ecuador, the Minister of Labor, the President's attorney, his aide-de-camp, a nephew, and the President's youngest son, 25-year-old Princeton man Fernando Lopez Michelsen. They all got dressed, arranged themselves comfortably about the sitting room and tried to appear at ease. The President and his party chatted pleasantly on harmless topics, watching the rifles.

At 8 a.m. the impatient colonel handed the President a prepared document which stated that the President hereby voluntarily resigned. The President refused to sign.

The colonel then took the President and his son out through a crowd of soldiers to a waiting car. Soldiers piled in around them. Truckloads of soldiers stood fore & aft. Off sped the cavalcade toward Popayan, 100 miles away.

"Individual Madness." In Bogota, news of the revolt reached Government Minister Alberto Lleras, who promptly rallied the cabinet around Vice President Dario Enchandia. Garrisons had also revolted in Bucaramanga and Ibague. Acting President Enchandia declared a state of civil war, called the revolt "an act of individual madness!"

In Pasto, Colonel Diogenes Gil proclaimed himself President.

On the road to Popayan, the abductors of President Lopez abruptly turned around, rattled back through Pasto, turned off on a mule trail. They had heard that the Popayan soldiers were loyal. At 5 p.m. the party stopped for the night at the hacienda of a couple of old-line, embarrassed Conservatives. Liberal President Lopez and son were agreeably entertained.

At noon next day a captain turned up at the hacienda with half the Pasto garrison. He slipped the President a gun, confided that he was about to release him. The soldiers thought the captain was simply taking over the prisoners. After lunch everybody set out again.

Twenty minutes later the party encountered the revolutionary Colonel Diogenes Gil in a car with a civilian chauffeur. Colonel Gil straightway sought the President's ear. The situation, he said, was serious. To avoid bloodshed, he suggested, the President should make him Minister of War. The President was outraged.

"I am the President!" he cried. "How dare you propose such a thing!"

"Well," said the Colonel, "it was only a suggestion."

Colonel Diogenes Gil and car uncertainly joined the cavalcade. Presently news came that the people of Pasto were approaching to rescue the President.

"This means I'm your prisoner," said Colonel Diogenes Gil.

The Presidential party proceeded northward through the mountains, drove with lights out, reached Tuquerres at 2 a.m. There the President took a catnap. He then caught a plane back to work in Bogota.

Thus ended the nearest thing to a revolution that democratic Colombia had had in 42 years. Proud of its well-earned reputation for stability, the nation was embarrassed.

* Abortive risings also occurred at Bucaramanga Ibague but the kidnapping of President Lopez was the central episode.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.