The Half-Day Revolt

Diehard military men, bent on short-circuiting the sure election of Civilian Alberto Lleras Camargo as bipartisan President of Colombia, brazenly kidnaped five top Colombians last week. The victims: four of the five joint presidents who make up the military junta that dumped Dictator Gustavo Rojas Pinilla last May--and Candidate Lleras himself.

"Come Along." The rebels, all members of the military police led by Colonel Hernando Forero Gomez, laid their plans with care. At 3 a.m. on the chosen night, Forero sent out police panel trucks to round up the government leaders. Major General Gabriel Paris was collected so swiftly that he rode off to military police barracks wearing pajamas and robe, but no slippers. Brigadier General Rafael Navas Pardo's sentry fired a few shots at the kidnapers, gave him time to dress in the dark and head for the back-garden wall. Just as he was about to go over, a voice said quietly: "My General Navas, come along."

Brigadier General Luis Ordonez delayed his abductors 20 minutes with a tongue-lashing but was forced to go along anyway. The capture of tough Major General Deogracias Fonseca was noisy; a guard managed to scream: "Save yourself, General! They've come to kill you!" Struggling, Fonseca was hauled off bodily to his pickup truck.

The seizure of Lleras began well. A strange voice phoned the Lleras home to tell the candidate to get ready, that he was needed to help put down a plot against the junta. Lleras shaved, dressed and dutifully stepped into the military police truck that came to pick him up. But his captors committed the tactical error of racing past the presidential palace on their way to the barracks, and were stopped for speeding by the army's palace guards. The guards recognized the prisoner, leveled rifles at the military police, escorted Lleras to safety.

Romantic Movement. By missing Vice Admiral Ruben Piedrahita, the fifth man in the junta, the rebels made the fatal mistake in their comedy-of-errors revolt. A little after 3 a.m., Piedrahita got a phone call from Public Works Minister Roberto Salazar, a neighbor of kidnaped General Fonseca. "There's a plot against the government," gasped Salazar. "They've taken the generals and are coming for you. You must be dressed when I come by your house." Piedrahita scrambled into his uniform and climbed down the fire escape of his apartment building as Salazar drove up.

Together in the palace, Lleras and Piedrahita took stock. By telephone, Forero proclaimed his insurrection "a romantic movement to restore the honor of the armed forces." Apparently he hoped to bargain for postponement of the election and formation of a new junta. Rumors racing through town that Rojas Pinilla was coming back took on added weight from the fact that the exiled military dictator last week left Lisbon, flew to Bermuda, bought a ticket for Barbados. But the armed forces stuck solidly behind the junta. Piedrahita was still free to take charge, and that was enough.

Under the admiral's orders, army troops drove military policemen from the radio stations they had seized. Air force planes swooped low over Bogota's military barracks to discourage any wavering army units from joining the rebels. Then 1,000 infantrymen, backed by artillery and tanks, marched up to the military police barracks. Forero, disheartened by the failure of other armed forces to support him, surrendered his hostages in return for safe conduct to asylum in the Salvadoran embassy. By midday the city and country were firmly back in the junta's hands. And this week's election, broadcast Piedrahita for the junta, will be guaranteed "even if it costs us our lives."

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