PANIC IN COLOMBIA

Chronicle (Levin), 31 October 1949, Page 5

PANIC IN COLOMBIA

(N.Z.P.A.-

-Reuter.

Over 100 Killed ln Serious Politieal Riots

Copyright)

Received Monday, 12.40 p.m. BOGOTA (Colombia), Oct. 30. Three villages were destroyed and 104 persons killed today in _ spreading politieal riots which have created an atmos.phere of panic in Bogota, says :the United Press correspondent. The Liberal newspaper E1 Tiempo. reported that four were killed and 15 injured at I Medellin, in western Colombia, when the police clashed with rioters. A dispatch from Cucuta, in the north of the country, reported the destruction of the j villages of Batatal, La Cuchilla ! and San Miguel. The newsIpaper E1 Liberal said that 100 were ki'lled in these villages. Bogotans rushed the banks today to withdraw their savings • and began hoarding food in anticipation of a possible general strike or worse disorders. 1 The latest deaths brought the reported toll since October 28 to 338. Nearly 700 have been killed throughout the country this autumn. The Presidential election, which is due on November 29, is the immediate cause of the explosive politieal situation, but the roots of the trouble go back three years to the 1946 Presidential election, which was won by the Conservative President, 'Mariano Ospina Perez, whose victory was made possible by a split in the dominant Liberal Party, which governed Colombia for years and still. has a majority in botb Houses of Parliament. The split between the Legis lature and Government is especially serious in Colombia, where the Provincial Governors and key local officials are appointed by the President. The Liberals complain that local Conservative officials discriml-' nate against them. This politieal friction frequently flare.1 into bitter battles.