Jaime Bateman Cayón
Encyclopedia
Jaime Bateman Cayón aka el flaco "Skinny" or Pablo by his fellow guerrilleros (born April 23, 1940 in Santa Marta
, Magdalena
- died April 28, 1983) was a Colombia
n guerrilla leader and both founder and commander of the 19th of April guerrilla movement
.
. Bateman was raised mostly by his stepfather Jorge Olarte. Bateman was born in Santa Marta
in the Caribbean region northern Colombia among colonial Spanish houses. At the age of eight Bateman was run over by an automobile while crossing a street in the neighboring city of Barranquilla
fracturing his tibia
and fibula. He almost lost his leg in this incident and left him with a defect in his leg. He swam for therapy.
during the presidency of Juan Domingo Perón. Romero influenced Bateman and convinced him to join the Communist Youth (Juventudes Comunistas, JUCO) and form the first group of communists in the Colombian state of Magdalena.
In 1957, while a student at the Liceo Celedón, civic strikes broke out throughout Colombia to protest the dictatorship of Gustavo Rojas Pinilla
. These strikes were organized by the two main political parties, the Liberal
and Conservative
parties. Bateman participated in the marches and became a student activist.
Carlos Romero then married Bateman's sister, Matilde, and Bateman traveled with them to the capital city Bogotá
. In Bogotá he went to high school at the Colegio Panamericano while still participating in the JUCO. In 1963 Bateman was arrested for a month for distributing subversive propaganda and was later arrested again for participating in a protest related to the high cost of living. He became political secretary of the National Secretariat of the Young Communists and participated in 1963 as a delegate for the organization in the 16th Komsomol
Congress in Moscow
where he received a course in social sciences and criticized the dogmatic study that characterized the school of squares.
and Maoism
, communists in Colombia began to conceive armed struggle as the only way to seize power. In 1966 Communist party followers split after following different communist tendencies. Some of these joined the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
, which the communist party supported. Because he was a communist, Bateman began being persecuted by Colombian government forces. He became the personal secretary of Manuel Marulanda Velez, Jacobo Arenas
and Ciro Trujillo performing political duties for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) until he left in 1970. The FARC wanted to achieve power through political struggle and by empowering the peasants while Bateman and his followers wanted to take the cities and believed that the armed and political struggle should be focused on nationalism, Bolivarianism and American-centrist.
After coming to these beliefs Bateman developed an urban political and military movement in 1970 along with Carlos Toledo Plata
, the main leader of the Socialist ANAPO. After the dubious elections of April 19, 1970 in which conservative candidate Misael Pastrana Borrero
won over the ANAPO candidate and former dictator Gustavo Rojas Pinilla
, Bateman launched the 19th of April Movement
with the banner: "With the arms, with the people, with María Eugenia Rojas
to the power", however the Directorate of the ANAPO denied such support for armed groups.
The group recruited numerous guerrilla fighters and began targeting government and military objectives. In 1974 the M-19 stole from the Quinta de Bolivar the sword of Simon Bolivar
, threatening not to return it until peace was achieved in Colombia. Bateman also ordered the robbery of some five thousand weapons from a military garrison in Bogotá known as the Canton Norte on January 6, 1981. He also ordered the Dominican embassy siege
during which he proposed an amnesty for political prisoners held in La Picota prison and dialogues to start formal peace talks. Then Senator Germán Bula Hoyos and who proposed the law to give amnesty to political prisoners was the first government official to meet him in person.
. His body was not found for 9 months.
Santa Marta
Santa Marta is the capital city of the Colombian department of Magdalena in the Caribbean Region. It was founded in July 29, 1525 by the Spanish conqueror Rodrigo de Bastidas, which makes it the oldest remaining city in Colombia...
, Magdalena
Magdalena Department
Magdalena is a department of Colombia, located to the north of the country by the Caribbean Sea. The capital of the Magdalena Department is Santa Marta and was named after the Magdalena River...
- died April 28, 1983) was a Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
n guerrilla leader and both founder and commander of the 19th of April guerrilla movement
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 years
Bateman grew up in an environment of social movements, his mother Clementina Cayón was an advocate of political prisoner and militant in the Liberal Revolutionary Movement (MRL) a dissident group from the Colombian Liberal PartyColombian Liberal Party
The Colombian Liberal Party is a center-left party in Colombia that adheres to social democracy and social liberalism.The Party was founded in 1848 and, together with the Colombian Conservative Party, subsequently became one of the two main political forces in the country for over a century.After...
. Bateman was raised mostly by his stepfather Jorge Olarte. Bateman was born in Santa Marta
Santa Marta
Santa Marta is the capital city of the Colombian department of Magdalena in the Caribbean Region. It was founded in July 29, 1525 by the Spanish conqueror Rodrigo de Bastidas, which makes it the oldest remaining city in Colombia...
in the Caribbean region northern Colombia among colonial Spanish houses. At the age of eight Bateman was run over by an automobile while crossing a street in the neighboring city of Barranquilla
Barranquilla
Barranquilla is an industrial port city and municipality located in northern Colombia, near the Caribbean Sea. The capital of the Atlántico Department, it is the largest industrial city and port in the Colombian Caribbean region with a population of 1,148,506 as of 2005, which makes it Colombia's...
fracturing his tibia
Tibia
The tibia , shinbone, or shankbone is the larger and stronger of the two bones in the leg below the knee in vertebrates , and connects the knee with the ankle bones....
and fibula. He almost lost his leg in this incident and left him with a defect in his leg. He swam for therapy.
Communist youth
Years later he met Carlos Romero who was arriving from Argentina, where he had been an active militant in the Communist Party of ArgentinaCommunist Party of Argentina
The Communist Party of Argentina is a communist party from Argentina. It was founded in 1918.At the 2005 legislative elections, the Party joined the Encuentro Amplio with other left-wing parties in Buenos Aires and Buenos Aires Province...
during the presidency of Juan Domingo Perón. Romero influenced Bateman and convinced him to join the Communist Youth (Juventudes Comunistas, JUCO) and form the first group of communists in the Colombian state of Magdalena.
In 1957, while a student at the Liceo Celedón, civic strikes broke out throughout Colombia to protest the dictatorship of Gustavo Rojas Pinilla
Gustavo Rojas Pinilla
Gustavo Rojas Pinilla was a Colombian politician, military officer, General of the Army and President of Colombia between 1953 and 1957.- Biographic data :...
. These strikes were organized by the two main political parties, the Liberal
Colombian Liberal Party
The Colombian Liberal Party is a center-left party in Colombia that adheres to social democracy and social liberalism.The Party was founded in 1848 and, together with the Colombian Conservative Party, subsequently became one of the two main political forces in the country for over a century.After...
and Conservative
Colombian Conservative Party
The Colombian Conservative Party , is a conservative political party in Colombia. The party was unofficially founded by a group of Revolutionary Commoners during the Revolutionary War for Independence from the Spanish Monarchy and later formally established during the Greater Colombia...
parties. Bateman participated in the marches and became a student activist.
Carlos Romero then married Bateman's sister, Matilde, and Bateman traveled with them to the capital city Bogotá
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...
. In Bogotá he went to high school at the Colegio Panamericano while still participating in the JUCO. In 1963 Bateman was arrested for a month for distributing subversive propaganda and was later arrested again for participating in a protest related to the high cost of living. He became political secretary of the National Secretariat of the Young Communists and participated in 1963 as a delegate for the organization in the 16th Komsomol
Komsomol
The Communist Union of Youth , usually known as Komsomol , was the youth division of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The Komsomol in its earliest form was established in urban centers in 1918. During the early years, it was a Russian organization, known as the Russian Communist Union of...
Congress in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
where he received a course in social sciences and criticized the dogmatic study that characterized the school of squares.
Guerrilla militant
Influenced by the Cuban RevolutionCuban Revolution
The Cuban Revolution was an armed revolt by Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement against the regime of Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista between 1953 and 1959. Batista was finally ousted on 1 January 1959, and was replaced by a revolutionary government led by Castro...
and Maoism
Maoism
Maoism, also known as the Mao Zedong Thought , is claimed by Maoists as an anti-Revisionist form of Marxist communist theory, derived from the teachings of the Chinese political leader Mao Zedong . Developed during the 1950s and 1960s, it was widely applied as the political and military guiding...
, communists in Colombia began to conceive armed struggle as the only way to seize power. In 1966 Communist party followers split after following different communist tendencies. Some of these joined the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
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...
, which the communist party supported. Because he was a communist, Bateman began being persecuted by Colombian government forces. He became the personal secretary of Manuel Marulanda Velez, Jacobo Arenas
Jacobo Arenas
Jacobo Arenas was a Colombian guerrilla and ideological leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia . He was also one of the FARC figures involved in the organization and creation of the Patriotic Union political party in 1985...
and Ciro Trujillo performing political duties for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) until he left in 1970. The FARC wanted to achieve power through political struggle and by empowering the peasants while Bateman and his followers wanted to take the cities and believed that the armed and political struggle should be focused on nationalism, Bolivarianism and American-centrist.
19th of April Movement
Carlos Toledo Plata
Carlos Francisco Toledo Plata was a Colombian doctor, politician, co-founder and early leader of the guerrilla movement known as M-19, who also laid the basis for the movement’s socialist platforms with his Marxist ideologies....
, the main leader of the Socialist ANAPO. After the dubious elections of April 19, 1970 in which conservative candidate Misael Pastrana Borrero
Misael Pastrana Borrero
Misael Pastrana Borrero , was a Conservative Party politician and President of Colombia from 1970 to 1974, the last presidential period of the National Front. Misael Pastrana became President after a close election campaign against Gen. Gustavo Rojas Pinilla, a former dictator. Mr...
won over the ANAPO candidate and former dictator Gustavo Rojas Pinilla
Gustavo Rojas Pinilla
Gustavo Rojas Pinilla was a Colombian politician, military officer, General of the Army and President of Colombia between 1953 and 1957.- Biographic data :...
, Bateman launched the 19th of April Movement
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...
with the banner: "With the arms, with the people, with María Eugenia Rojas
María Eugenia Rojas
María Eugenia Rojas Correa is a retired Colombian political figure, and daughter of former political-military authoritarian leader Gustavo Rojas Pinilla. She was a member of the Colombian House of Representatives and the Senate of Colombia...
to the power", however the Directorate of the ANAPO denied such support for armed groups.
The group recruited numerous guerrilla fighters and began targeting government and military objectives. In 1974 the M-19 stole from the Quinta de Bolivar the sword of Simon Bolivar
Simón Bolívar
Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios Ponte y Yeiter, commonly known as Simón Bolívar was a Venezuelan military and political leader...
, threatening not to return it until peace was achieved in Colombia. Bateman also ordered the robbery of some five thousand weapons from a military garrison in Bogotá known as the Canton Norte on January 6, 1981. He also ordered the Dominican embassy siege
Dominican embassy siege
The Dominican Embassy siege was the 1980 siege of the embassy of the Dominican Republic by M-19 guerrillas in Bogotá, Colombia. The guerrillas held nearly 60 people, including 14 ambassadors, hostage for 61 days.-The Siege:...
during which he proposed an amnesty for political prisoners held in La Picota prison and dialogues to start formal peace talks. Then Senator Germán Bula Hoyos and who proposed the law to give amnesty to political prisoners was the first government official to meet him in person.
Death
Bateman died on April 28, 1983 in a plane crash while en route to PanamaPanama
Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...
. His body was not found for 9 months.