The Habit of Murder

Political murder, the scourge of Colombia, is on the rise again. Last week alone, there were eight killings; there have been more than 100 since last June, when Lieut. General Gustavo Rojas Pi-nilla seized the presidency of Colombia and promised "no more bloodshed."

In the main, Rojas has kept that promise : he stopped the four-year war between the brutal policemen-followers of his fanatically Conservative predecessor, Lau-reano Gomez, and the Gomez-hating Liberal guerrillas. Although a Conservative himself, Rojas fired the cops, earning their hatred, and amnestied the Liberals, earning their gratitude. The new peacebreakers are mostly Laureanista ex-cops, far gone in the habit of murder and bitter toward Rojas and the Liberals.

The Laureanistas are often called Bluebirds--blue being the Conservative color and bird the local slang for villain. One area where the Bluebirds are on the rampage is the south. Two months ago they hacked 14 Liberal farmers to death and hurled their bodies into the Bache River. Terrorized Caicedonia, 125 miles west of Bogota, is another Bluebird battlefield. A two-street town with a population of only 5,200, it has seen twelve murders in the last six weeks. Twenty others have been killed in the area around Caicedonia.

The Rojas government answered the new violence by ordering troops into Caicedonia, and by replacing the town's entire police force. It named new police chiefs or mayors, many of them army officers, for 38 nearby towns. To the south, Rojas sent a bipartisan commission which will report directly to him. Despite these measures, at week's end four more Liberal farmers were killed (two by beheading) by thugs who shouted, "Down with Rojas Pinilla!"

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