Iván Marino Ospina (died August 28, 1985) was a Colombian guerrilla and co-founder of the revolutionary group 19th of April Movement (M-19)

19th of April Movement

The 19th of April Movement or M-19, was a Colombian guerrilla movement. After its demobilization it became a political party, the M-19 Democratic Alliance , or AD/M-19.The M-19 traced its origins to the allegedly fraudulent presidential elections of 19 April 1970...

.

Early life

Not much is known of Marino's early life. He was born in Valle del Cauca and studied at an official college.

Early career as a revolutionary

Ospina was convinced that the revolution in Colombia had to become violent to be successful. As the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC)

Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People's Army is a Marxist–Leninist revolutionary guerrilla organization based in Colombia which is involved in the ongoing Colombian armed conflict, currently involved in drug dealing and crimes against the civilians..FARC-EP is a peasant army which...

 initially mistrusted him, he was only able to join their ranks in 1966, but he was later expelled on charges of being a CIA agent. He then fought with the guerrillas in Venezuela

Venezuela

Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...

. In 1970 he returned to Colombia to establish M-19 along with Jaime Bateman Cayón

Jaime Bateman Cayón

Jaime Bateman Cayón aka el flaco "Skinny" or Pablo by his fellow guerrilleros was a Colombian guerrilla leader and both founder and commander of the 19th of April guerrilla movement.- Early years :Bateman grew up in an environment of social movements, his mother Clementina Cayón was an advocate...

, a friend from the group Communist Youth (Juventudes Comunistas, JUCO), who had also recently expelled from the FARC. Ospina became the second in command of M-19. A few days after this promotion, Ospina was arrested in Cali

Calì

Calì, also written in English as Cali, is an Italian surname, widespread mainly in the Ionian side of Sicily.For the surname Calì is assumed the origin of the Greek word kalos , or from its Sanskrit root kali, "time."The surname refers to:...

 and sent to Bogota

Bogotá

Bogotá, Distrito Capital , from 1991 to 2000 called Santa Fé de Bogotá, is the capital, and largest city, of Colombia. It is also designated by the national constitution as the capital of the department of Cundinamarca, even though the city of Bogotá now comprises an independent Capital district...

 where he was tortured in the notorious "Sacromonte caves" to the point that he made a suicide attempt. Six months later Ospina, disguised as a major of the Army, escaped and resumed the role of second in command.

Leader of M-19

Bateman died on April 28, 1983 in a plane crash, and Ospina inherited the leadership of the guerrilla group. As such, he was in Madrid

Madrid

Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...

 for the controversial meetings with President Belisario Betancur

Belisario Betancur

Belisario Betancur Cuartas is a Colombian statesman, who as a member of the Colombian Conservative Party was President of Colombia from 1982 to 1986.- Biographic data :...

 which would lead to a truce agreement in 1984. In December of that year, at a reunion in Mexico, Ospina made what would be a monumental faux pas: he applauded Mafia

Mafia

The Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...

 threats to Americans living in Colombia. This tactical error cost him the leadership of M-19. He was replaced by Alvaro Fayad

Alvaro Fayad

Álvaro Fayad Delgado “The Turk” was a Colombian guerilla, cofounder and leader of the 19th of April movement , founded in 1970.-Early life:...

. His position, always on the side of the "hard", earned him the nickname "Ivan el terrible."

Death

Ospina died in a military operation against the guerrilla group by the army in August 1985 in the city of Cali.

According to the official version, intelligence forces involved in the operation found a house in which was the commander of M-19. The house was besieged on the morning of August 28 and after an hour of combat, Ivan Marino Ospina, who until a few months earlier had been the chief of M-19, was killed, along with his bodyguard, Gerardo Ospina. His son Jorge Ivan Ospina

Jorge Ivan Ospina

Jorge Ivan Ospina is the mayor-elect of the Colombian city of Santiago de Cali. Ospina is also a doctor who has worked in the hospital located on the University of Valle, called, el hospital Universitario del Valle.-Election:...

, current mayor of Cali, was injured in the operation, as was Antonio Navarro Wolf, current governor of the Department of Nariño.