CO–15. Memorandum from the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs (Snow) to the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs (Murphy)1
SUBJECT
- Disquieting rumors of revolutionary plotting in Colombia.
Facts:
General Gustavo ROJAS Pinilla was overthrown as dictator-president of Colombia on May 11, 1957. For a year he was in exile in the Canary Islands. On October 12, 1958, despite warnings from the Colombian Government he returned to Bogotá, avowedly to “vindicate his honor”. His presence in Colombia has occasioned considerable plotting, some of it overt but most of it covert. Rojas himself has been defiant and contemptuous toward the Government, which is planning to bring him to trial on December 15 on a series of charges ranging from violation of the Constitution and Laws to “indignities”. The Senate has been conducting hearings on these charges for some time, and has its case against him ready to present.
Current Situation:
Our Embassy has from the moment of Rojas’ return expressed concern at the course events were taking and the danger of a violent overthrow of the democratic National Union Government headed by Dr. Alberto LLERAS Camargo. The Embassy has based this concern on the testimony of sources close to Rojas, but Rojas himself has not been hesitant about declaring openly his expectation that there will be an uprising in his favor. One source claims that 70% of the Armed forces, including [Typeset Page 342] the Commander General of the Armed Forces and the Commander of the Air Force, are inclined toward Rojas. Sources of our confidential agency deny this, as do officers of the local Embassy. However the most recent messages from Bogotá [text not declassified] are quite alarming, as they indicate Rojas wants a showdown, that his supporters are “ready” in six or seven of the fourteen states of Colombia, and that morale is disintegrating in the Army. It should also be noted that certain Embassy sources that formerly discounted the possibility of violence have now revised their opinion.
Evaluation:
The next two weeks may be critical in Colombia. If the Armed Forces are loyal, there is no danger. If the Embassy’s sources are truthful, and not just propagandists and alarmists, it may be difficult, if not impossible, to bring Rojas to trial and convict him (which would doubtless mean expelling him from the country). His own recent statements in private to the Secretary of the Senate—that rivers of blood will flow and that there will not be enough lampposts in Bogatá for all these designated for hanging—show plainly enough that his own intentions are evil. We shall have to expect a continuance of disquieting information until the crisis is passed, on or about December 15.2