At Least 300 Killed; Capital Now A Shambles

Chronicle (Levin), 12 April 1948, Page 5

At Least 300 Killed; Capital Now A Shambles

( N.Z.P.A .—

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Reeeived Simday* 7.0 p.m. NEW YO RK, April 10. At the very seene of the PatiAmeriean Conl'erence, an angry mob oi' shouting revolutionaries armed with g'uns, machetes, brieks and stones, stormed the Nationai Palace today and took over the Colombian (iovernment after the ■' assassination of the popular Liberal Party leader, Dr. Jorge Elieeer Raitan. British and United States correspondents at Bogota, in messages sent through the State Department, said that troops tired on the crowds trying to storm the Presidential Palace and at least eight wero killed.A eombined press dispateh declares: "The rioting was spread by broadeasts over Ihe captured (iovernment radio, urging widespread revolution. A small bornb exploded oufiside the United States EmbasSy and delegation building. Only the windows were broken. "Widespread looting of liqnor and hardwarc stores occurred. Trolley cars wero upended'" and fires are raging. The (Iovernment is powerless. " Bogota itself is a shambles. The buildings have been gutted by fire, stores looted, and streets littered with debris and seattered eoi'pses. 11 is impossible to give an aeeurate nnmber of the dead but it is estimated it niust be at least 100. .The revolutionary mob worked their destruetive way through the Pan-American Conferenee headquarters in the Capitol building, Bogota, for 20 minutes, breaking furniture. and smashing typewriters, says the Herald-Tribune eorrespondent. The unarmed Capitol guard did not try to stop them. Soon 100 soldiers arrived and drove out the mob with rifles and bayonets. Delegates to the eonference were still in the building and eonference personnel were herded up on to the third floor. For protection troops guarded the stairway. The Mexiean delegation left the Capitol under the protection oi their own flag, hokling it in frorit of them as tliev walked. The rcbel radio in Colombia asserW that, in addition to Dr. Gaitan, who (iied in hospital during the aftenioon. and ti is asaailant wlio wiis killed this af't-ernoon by the infuriuted mob in the street, the dead inelude Laureano Gomez, president of the t'onservat ive I'arty and Foreign Minister, (iuillermo Leon Valeneia, Conservative Senator who is reported to have been cuiigh* and hanged in Plaza Holivar facing the Capitol, and .Tosa Antonio Montalvo, Minister of Justiee and Minister oi' Interior, who was knit'ed to death in his eountry liomo. Among the buildings burned was th.Ministry of Justiee, the nine-storev eommunieations building and the eentury-old Metropolitan C'athedral opposite the Capitol building. Drunken rioters surged through tio streets armed with a maehete knife or e.lub in one hand and a bottle of liquor in the otlier. The United States ("onsul. reported to the State. Dejji^Ftnijent'. tjmt the, reyolu tion a r i ejs , :■ |by|%lltf?;.> sjArit 1 poliee, h a ii •.ifhfzeif' Colombja 's third eitv. • " ' " The liispufe between the iberal and Conservative I'arties is one of long standing and lias engendered much tension. 1'resident Berez Avas the first Conservative President in 20 vears. Ho was eleeted as the resull of a split in the I. iberal Party. The Liberals retained eontrol of Congress and Perez fstablislied a (Iovernment of both Liberals and Conservatives. Both the Conservative aiul Liberal Pftrties are strongly anti-Conuminist. Shortly hnfore the Pan-Ameriean Oonferenee opened, Dr. Gaitan ordered the Liberals to withdraw from the Governrnent. Dr. Gaitan was the unsuceessful Liberal Party cahdidate for President in 1940. Tle was leaving his offiee when the assailant tired three shots at closo range, and he t'ell to the grouild bleeding profusely. An infuriated mob of Dr. Ga%tan's followers seized the attaeker as lie was being dragged awav by the poliee ana lcieked him to death. Thev ripped tho elothes from his bodv and durnped it, naked, at the door of the Presidentiat Palace seven blocks from the seene of Gio shooting.