Deadly Debut

For all its long history of backlands savagery, Colombia has seen remarkably little organized Castroite activity. The roving bands fought either to settle indigenous political disputes or for the pure, murderous pleasure of it all. But now Castro seems to be dealing himself in--with a guerrilla outfit closely resembling the FALN terrorists in neighboring Venezuela.

Just after dawn one morning, a group of about 100 men invaded the town of Simacota (pop. 5,000), a small farming community in the Andean foothills 225 miles northeast of Bogota. Wearing khaki uniforms and FALN-type arm bands, the raiders attacked the police post with modern automatic weapons, killing three policemen and a child who wandered into the line of fire. With crisp military precision, they then cut communication lines, looted the government Agrarian Bank of $5,300, snatched the cashbox from the local brewery, and stole arms and ammunition from police headquarters. One of the leaders was a pretty blonde girl of about 19 who was called Comrade Mariela. After two hours, the invaders vanished into the hills, but not before rounding up the populace for a Communist harangue and passing out manifestos calling for a people's revolution.

Colombia's President Guillermo Leon Valencia flatly called the raid "Castro-Communist-inspired." Despite the widespread lawlessness in the surrounding countryside, Simacota had never before been troubled by bandits. The uniforms, armbands, methods and message all pointed to Castro.

It was too early to estimate how big an operation the Castroites have going in Colombia. But recent press reports tell of some 700 Colombians undergoing guerrilla training in Cuba. Bogota's El Tiempo reported an anonymous call from a woman who warned that the Simacota raid was the first phase of "Operacion Esperanza"--Operation Hope. "Soon you will have another surprise," she said. Figuring one such surprise was enough, President Valencia ordered helicopter-equipped anti-guerrilla troops into the hills to hunt down Mariela and her marauders.

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