The 1970 presidential elections were contested by the conservative Misael Pastrana Borrero and General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla, leader of the Alianza Nacional Popular (National Popular Alliance), a motley organization, with liberals, conservatives and military men in line with Latin American progressive movements.

The elections were held on April 19 of that year. According to the afternoon radio transmissions, the general seemed to have the majority of votes; however, in the evening the Minister of Government, Carlos Augusto Noriega, suspended the information of the contest. A state of siege was declared. President Carlos Lleras pronounced his famous "clock speech", with which he announced the curfew and the obligation of all Colombians to go to sleep.

The results came in dribs and drabs, the anxiety of Colombians increased, since for many it was the opportunity to put an end to the National Front which, for many sectors, was considered as a pact of elites. Finally, the victory of Pastrana Borrero was proclaimed.

The suspicion of fraud was inevitable. There were demonstrations, but General Rojas did not fight to vindicate his victory. Minister Noriega, nicknamed 'El Tigrillo', confirmed the suspicions in his book 'Fraude en la Elección de Pastrana Borrero', published in 1992.

Shortly after the elections, some curious notices appeared in the press and on the walls of some cities that seemed to promote medicinal restorative: "Lack of energy, parasites? wait M-19" or "Lack of energy. Inactivity? Wait for M-19". And in January 1974, the group's first action took place, with the theft of the Liberator's sword in the Quinta de Bolivar. From then on, the M-19 presented itself as an urban, nationalist, anti-imperialist and anti-oligarchic political-military organization.

Its leaders came from the left wing of Anapo, as well as sympathizers of the Golconda religious group and disenchanted members of the FARC and the Communist Party. Some of them were Carlos Pizarro Leongómez, son of an admiral; Jaime Bateman; Everth Bustamante, Andrés Almarales and Carlos Toledo Plata.

According to their manifestos, they wanted to achieve a truly participatory democracy, without Marxist reference, unlike the Farc, the Eln and the Epl. They were joined by sectors of the middle class and the working class, whom this organization supported in their struggles. Through their communications agency 'Oiga Hermano' they disseminated bulletins and communiqués, and at the same time they were close to the magazine Alternativa, a publication of investigative journalism.

The actions of the M-19 materialized in operations of great public impact, such as the theft of Bolivar's sword (1974), the theft of at least 5,000 weapons from Cantón Norte (January 1, 1979), and the seizure of the Embassy of the Dominican Republic (1980), on a day when several ambassadors were meeting, including that of the United States. The seizure lasted two months and aroused the interest and curiosity of the people of Bogota. It ended without bloodshed.

On the other hand, the seizure of the Palace of Justice in 1985, with the objective of bringing President Betancur to trial, turned into a tragedy with the retaking of the Palace by the Army, with a toll of 11 magistrates dead, several civilians, and missing persons, for a total of 94 dead. Other acts, such as the assassination of José Raquel Mercado, president of the trade union CTC, or the 53-day kidnapping of Álvaro Gómez Hurtado, were repudiated. At the same time, the robbery of trucks loaded with foodstuffs to distribute them in the neighborhoods was well regarded by popular sectors, although the last one, on September 30, 1985, ended in the death of the assailants.

The agreement implied the laying down of arms and the right to political participation of the demobilized combatants. This was how the idea of a National Constituent Assembly was conceived to create the Constitution that replaced the 1886 Constitution, opening politics to new political parties and movements. With the seventh ballot, a student initiative, the objective was achieved, and in the election of the members of the Constituent Assembly, the Democratic Alliance M-19 achieved a considerable vote.

the M-19 would eventually become another political party in colombia.

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  • aaaaaaadjsf [he/him, comrade/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Didn't realise how straight up racist the bored ape NFTs were until now. Like, they always made me feel weird with it literally being ape charicatures, but it's literally just neo Nazi dog whisles left and right.

      • aaaaaaadjsf [he/him, comrade/them]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Didn't they put kamakazie imperial Japan headbands on them as well?

        Seriously how'd they get shit like that mainstream and on people like Justin Bieber's IG?

        • Frank [he/him, he/him]
          ·
          2 years ago

          The kamikaze headbands have been floating around in American pop culture since the 80s at least, almost entirely stripped of their context and meaning.

          • aaaaaaadjsf [he/him, comrade/them]
            ·
            2 years ago

            I get that to a point, but have these people/celeb PR teams never heard of simianization before? I remember some popular African American celebrities calling it out before being silenced by the NFT media marketing machine.

            • Frank [he/him, he/him]
              ·
              2 years ago

              I'd find that to be a hard sell for the apes. With ten thousand of them randomly generated with markers of all kinds of sub-cultures and groups with varying degrees of associated social prestige, sometimes an ape is just and ape. I don't see an author's intent to mock black people by using cartoon chimpanzees, and I don't see any clear way to read it as having that as an unintended effect. The apes are supposed to be read as apes because monkeys are funny, and as far as I'm aware most of the audience reads the apes as apes, rather than any kind of allegory. Not saying the author's aren't chuds, because they pretty clearly are, but I don't think the use of cartoon apes is intended or understood to have that meaning.

              • aaaaaaadjsf [he/him, comrade/them]
                ·
                2 years ago

                I thought that too, but I read this and I've been convinced that it's just an avenue to get Nazi shit on the front page of everything.

                When the neo Nazi cofounder of the bored ape stuff says that nothing is random in the collection and references iceberg theory, then yea...

                https://gordongoner.com/

            • Frank [he/him, he/him]
              ·
              2 years ago

              Yeah, I know. I'm increasing convinced. It calls to mind the Sartre quote;

              “Never believe that anti-Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti-Semites have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert. If you press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument is past.”

          • aaaaaaadjsf [he/him, comrade/them]
            ·
            2 years ago

            It's just unbelievable how they got this shit on the font page of everything. You have some of the most famous people in the world unknowingly shilling neo Nazi propaganda

            • forcequit [she/her]
              ·
              2 years ago

              Theyve been doing it for years and finally found a way to monetise it.

              👌

              • aaaaaaadjsf [he/him, comrade/them]
                ·
                2 years ago

                Yeah the ok symbol was basically a trail run, convincing people it was a white supremacist symbol to the point actual white supremacists started using it. And then it became an unironic white supremacist thing.

                Literally memed it into reality. They tried something similar with the "I like milk" stuff, thankfully that flopped

                • forcequit [she/her]
                  ·
                  2 years ago

                  👌, drink milk & capture the flag with shia labeouf, unite the right parodying shia's "he will not divide us" with "jews will not replace us", pool's closed, and so on and so on

                  • aaaaaaadjsf [he/him, comrade/them]
                    ·
                    2 years ago

                    Keeping track of all this shit makes us look like :wtf-am-i-reading:

                    In South Africa it's always people trying to insert the old flag into stuff, or dig up the 1000th obscure version of the Transvaal flag or something.

                    • forcequit [she/her]
                      ·
                      2 years ago

                      You kinda have to be or have been part of it to understand it, otherwise you just get the hacker known as anonymous and moot topping the 2008 time 100 list plus marblecake also the game

                      Then you realise its nazis all the way down and you can maybe keep tabs on some of it