The matter attracted attention when, in 1985, that guerrilla movement, the M-19, later incorporated into the political scene when Colombia held a National Constituent Assemblyhe set the Supreme Court itself on fire, the same one over which he now waves his flag in 2024.
In ‘Vicky en SEMANA’, Heráclito Landinez, representative to the Chamber for the Historical Pact, found no problem with this fact. “The M-19 made a peace agreement with the Colombian State and from there emerged, among other things, the National Constituent Assembly of 1991. to make the reforms that those young people, who founded that guerrilla movement, proposed in the 70s. And the Constitution of 91 was made with a tripartite President in which there was a member of the M-19, a member of the Liberal Party and a member of National Salvation of conservative origin. After that agreement, the M-19 participated as a political party.”
Watch the full debate here:
“I do not believe that it is a message or that it is interpreted as something against the Court but rather a citizen demonstration that we cannot ban someone because they have that flag of a movement that made a peace agreement with the Colombian State“added the congressman from the Historical Pact, close to President Gustavo Petro.
“I think that because some citizens carried a flag we are not going to condemn them. It is a free, democratic demonstration, but for that reason We cannot say that we are questioning the Supreme Court of Justice“added the congressman. “We recognize the honorable Supreme Court of Justice,” he stated.
In turn, Enrique Gómez, director of the National Salvation political movement, complained to Landinez for what he said and maintained that he can interpret it however he wants, but that does not mean that the country can forget that the Supreme Court of Justice burned in 1985 on behalf of the m-19 and Now, in 2024, the protesters wave the flags of their perpetrator in front of them. “Resignify it however you want. The reality is that there, hand in hand with the M-19, the worst violations against the Colombian justice system occurred systematically,” he said.
At noon on November 6, 1985, thousands of gray doves opened their wings and took flight headlong into the Bogotá sky, as gray as the color of the birds in the Plaza de Bolívar, in the country’s capital.
The controversy around the M-19 flags in the marches of February 8, 2024:
The sound of a gunshot seemed to stop time in the Palace of Justice, which, like every Wednesday for 37 years, was the only day of the week in which all the judges of the Supreme Court of Justice met inside.
The shots were repeated and hundreds of kidnapped people at the headquarters of justice in Colombia found themselves face to face with death (94 dead), which in 28 hours between November 6 and 7 lurked in every corner of the building they had seized. taken by guerrillas from the April 19 Movement (M-19), and which Army soldiers resumed in a confrontation of blood and fire that, like one of the worst nightmares, Colombia has not been able to forget.
The M-19 included its best military strategists, intellectual cadres and negotiators because they wanted to hold an ideological and legal debate. At first the plan was to take control of the Palace of Justice, hold a popular trial of the peace process of the time, forcing President Belisario Betancur to defend himself and having the Supreme Court of Justice as a witness. Also, some proclamations on the radio.
The takeover and retake were described as a massacre by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and there is still no certainty about what happened inside the Palace of Justice and with the missing people. The reconstruction of the building cost about 100 million pesos at the time and the demands have exceeded 50,000 million.
