It was 1:05 p.m. April 9th, 1948 in the very heart of the capital city, that the very heart of a nation's people was assassinated.
His name was Jorge Eliecer Gaitan and he represented the hope of a country run by corrupt conservative tycoons. Popular, eloquent, endearing, liberal, charismatic - you name it man - this guy was going to turn the whole country around through every legitimate means possible.
Educated in Bogota and Rome, in 1936 he became the capital city's mayor and subsequently the nation's Minister of Education in 1940. In 1947 (2 years into the Cold War Era) he gained the upper hand as the single undisputed liberal candidate for the 1950 elections, and winning the people over by appealing to their emotions with his tremendous oratory skills - he was undoubtedly going to win the elections and bring about social reform to the poorer class...
All of this of course, before he was abruptly shot and killed one terrible day by a mysterious man who's ties no one has ever been able to trace to whom.
All of this of course, before he was abruptly shot and killed one terrible day by a mysterious man who's ties no one has ever been able to trace to whom.
Murdered in broad daylight, Gaitan's death unleashed an unprecedented riot in Bogota that lasted for 10 hours straight, in which approximately 4,000 people died and huge portions of the city were looted and burned down.
...The violence spread into other major cities as well, as Liberals persecuted Conservatives and vice-versa, until gradually the war found itself in the countryside where for the next 10 years the whole nation experienced an atrocious period of civil unrest that cost the lives of some 200,000 to 300,000 people.
...And in some way or another this violence still exists to this day (it exists in the presence of armed insurgent groups such as the FARC*, the ELN*, and the AUC*), and it's so sad to see that through the death of this one man - there are so many more deaths that have happened ever since.
I often think back on this day in history, and whenever I make it back to Colombia I always like to go to Bogota's downtown plaza to look at the historical and governmental buildings in this sector and somehow remind myself of those days in which violence existed on every corner.
It was always the first thing I would do whenever I made it back to the concrete jungle of Bogota after being in the virgin jungle of San Jose, and I loved getting lost down there, and the feeling I would get like I was a nobody with all the crowd going every-which way minding their own business. I liked the commotion of it all, and the feeling that I was so alone, because somehow that would make me think of the deeper things of life.
It would make me think of the girl I loved and my friends in San Jose and the church I had started, and how looking at everything from an aerial view - that maybe we all still had a chance.
It would make me think of the whole reason for why I went down there to begin with, and the struggle it was to get there, and how it wasn't quite what I expected, but how it was quite a bit more than what I hoped for.
...The reason was because I felt like I was made for it, which, when it came right down to it - was also a similar reason for why I left... because there was a negative truth that I found to be equally evident as well: I left because I felt like I wasn't made to be alone (Genesis 2:18).
There was a war that had been waging for the past 60 years, initiated with the death of one man, and I wanted to do something about it. I started to, and then I fell in love with the liberal daughter of a conservative politician's wife who wasn't about to let her daughter follow a guy who had no ambition for wealth.
My ambition was hidden in another more intangible thing that was starting to take shape in an unconventional group of young Christians... And the weak my girlfriend met them; the times she showed me that she cared and the day she told me 'yeah' - from that day on is exactly when she took first place. From there on out I decided I would die for her, and a few months later I traded it all for us.
That in itself was a death of sorts, and I've never taken it back... If I were to go back in time and do it again, I would do it again many times over. Granted, I would have done a lot of things differently once I arrived, but that initial decision was dead on considering all the factors involved, and she was worth it.
That in itself was a death of sorts, and I've never taken it back... If I were to go back in time and do it again, I would do it again many times over. Granted, I would have done a lot of things differently once I arrived, but that initial decision was dead on considering all the factors involved, and she was worth it.
And so what about the dream?
The dream is still there, but it's become dynamic.
I look back at the nightmare that Gaitan's death produced in Colombia and I still dream about the full restoration that Christ's life is producing in the whole world (John 17:3).
Romans 5:19 says that, "For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.
In Colombia the sin of the one man Juan Roa Sierra who killed Jorge Eliecer Gaitan, resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands more, just like in Genesis the sin of the one man Adam resulted in the death, literally, of the whole human race.
...In that same verse Paul also mentions the obedience of the one man Christ, who willingly submitted to God's will that His Son should die so that there would be many who would be made righteous through Him (see also John 3:16, Luke 22:42, Philippians 2:6-8, and Acts 26:18).
Very much unlike the death of Gaitan that simply brought more death - the death of Jesus Christ brought more life!
...And it brought it to everyone who dares to believe it (Joel 2:32, Acts 2:21, Romans 10:13) - even to the perpetrators of the war themselves.
Interestingly enough it was this very thought that inspired me to go to Colombia in the first place. Somehow I wanted to share the gospel even to the members of the guerrilla forces, and even though I never made it, I got close*, and I started a church in a region where there were many who at one point had been either directly or indirectly affected by this violence.
...A violence starting back at the beginning of time through the one man Adam, highlighted on April 9th 1948 with the assassination of the one man Jorge Eliecer Gaitan, but which can be nullified through the resurrection of the dead that came through the one man Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the living Son of God (1 Corinthians 15:21-22).
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The dream is still there, but it's become dynamic.
I look back at the nightmare that Gaitan's death produced in Colombia and I still dream about the full restoration that Christ's life is producing in the whole world (John 17:3).
 |
| Displaced woman embracing a Christian evangelist after forgiving the guerrillas who killed her husband (Picture taken by missionary friend Jon Captain in Terra Alta, Cordoba Colombia). |
In Colombia the sin of the one man Juan Roa Sierra who killed Jorge Eliecer Gaitan, resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands more, just like in Genesis the sin of the one man Adam resulted in the death, literally, of the whole human race.
...In that same verse Paul also mentions the obedience of the one man Christ, who willingly submitted to God's will that His Son should die so that there would be many who would be made righteous through Him (see also John 3:16, Luke 22:42, Philippians 2:6-8, and Acts 26:18).
Very much unlike the death of Gaitan that simply brought more death - the death of Jesus Christ brought more life!
...And it brought it to everyone who dares to believe it (Joel 2:32, Acts 2:21, Romans 10:13) - even to the perpetrators of the war themselves.
Interestingly enough it was this very thought that inspired me to go to Colombia in the first place. Somehow I wanted to share the gospel even to the members of the guerrilla forces, and even though I never made it, I got close*, and I started a church in a region where there were many who at one point had been either directly or indirectly affected by this violence.
...A violence starting back at the beginning of time through the one man Adam, highlighted on April 9th 1948 with the assassination of the one man Jorge Eliecer Gaitan, but which can be nullified through the resurrection of the dead that came through the one man Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the living Son of God (1 Corinthians 15:21-22).
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*FARC - Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
*ELN - National Liberation Army
*AUC - United Self Defense Forces of Colombia
*ELN - National Liberation Army
*AUC - United Self Defense Forces of Colombia
*The closest I got was when I was on a Colombian military base from about 30 yards away I saw a man and a woman who had been members of the FARC but who had recently turned themselves in to the army to be re-inserted into society.
Movie trailer for a very good film that depicts the terribleness of what Colombia's war has done, and the types of people it has affected (Colores de la Montaña):
Pictures of guerrilla members that a friend attained from a computer South of San Jose (faces of people to pray for):
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Picture Cited (Jorge Eliecer Gaitan):
Movie trailer for a very good film that depicts the terribleness of what Colombia's war has done, and the types of people it has affected (Colores de la Montaña):
Pictures of guerrilla members that a friend attained from a computer South of San Jose (faces of people to pray for):
In 2001 it was estimated that guerrillas from the FARC consisted of about 16,000 members, but today it is believed that this group has dropped down to about 8,000. To learn more about the FARC click here.
Picture Cited (Jorge Eliecer Gaitan):
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