Colombia lifts bombing truce after Farc attack in Cauca

[Judi Lynn]

10. Suspected by whom? That's a hot one!

Colombian "Magnicidio" Remains a Mystery After 60 Years
Written by Paul Wolf
Tuesday, 08 April 2008 09:58

~ snip ~

Gaitan's assassination, which occurred at a very dramatic moment, sent shock waves throughout the country and created a spontaneous civil war. It is counted as one of the most, if not the most, tragic event in Colombia's history. And to make things worse, no one knows the motivation of his killer, who was himself killed almost immediately.

A Wilderness of Conspiracy Theories

Gaitan's dramatic murder has prompted endless speculation as to what could have motivated Juan Roa Sierra, his killer. These theories are based either on the suspected motives of Roa, or on the motives of others who may have had some reason to kill Dr. Gaitan. While interesting, these theories are ultimately unsatisfying, and tell more about the theorist than they do about the actual events. The mystery remains a mystery to this day.

Roa's own motives can barely be understood. Two theories, now discredited, were put forward shortly after Gaitan's death, which might have made sense if they'd been true. One was that Roa was an illegitimate son of Gaitan's father, that there had been trouble between the two families, and that Gaitan's father had made a settlement to Roa's mother just one month before the assassination. A second theory was that Roa related to the alleged victim of one Gaitan's clients in his criminal law practice, for whom Gaitan had won an acquittal the day before. Although the first director of the CIA, Admiral Roscoe Hillenkoetter, reported this version to a Congressional investigating committee as fact, there is no evidence whatsoever that Roa was related to Gaitan or to any of his clients. Why Admiral Hillenkoetter went with this story, instead of reporting that the CIA was still investigating the matter, is another unsolved mystery.

Investigators from Scotland Yard learned that Roa was a disturbed individual, having previously been committed to a mental institution. He was obsessed with witchcraft and the occult, and believed himself to be the reincarnation of General Francisco de Paula Santander, a Colombian revolutionary war hero. According to his astrologer, Roa carried a photo of General Santander in his pocket, and was also a member of the Rosicrucian Society. The detectives also learned, from Gaitan's secretary, that Roa had been trying to meet with Gaitan for days before the assassination, and always told to wait in the lobby, which he did day after day without success.

Scotland Yard was called in by President Ospina, to assist a judge he had appointed to investigate the murder, named Ricardo Jordan Jimenez. The Scotland Yard team remarked to US embassy officials of their frustration with Jordan, who, they said, would not let them interview witnesses themselves. They believed they were being manipulated, and in their report concluded that they had not seen enough evidence to conclude that Roa acted in concert with anyone else. Although Jordan emphasized the conduct of the young and then-unknown Fidel Castro, the British investigators did not find Jordan's evidence to be convincing. Jordan later wrote a book comparing the murder of Gaitan to the JFK assassination, although the mystery surrounding the Gaitan investigation was of his own doing.

US and Colombian government spokesmen wasted no time in blaming "communists" for the death of Gaitan. This was based partly on information that the Colombian communist party (the Partido Socialista Democratico) had intended to disrupt the Pan American Conference and to molest several of the delegations attending it. No doubt, Gaitan's death was also cynically used by the US government to rally the delegates to the Pan American meeting around what the US perceived to be their common enemy: international communism.

More:
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/colombia-archives-61/1212-colombian-magnicidio-remains-a-mystery-after-60-years

[center]~ ~ ~[/center]
Thanks for the moment of humor.