More Violence Against Diplomats

Colombian leftists seize 15 ambassadors for ransom

Clad in green sweatsuits and clutching gym bags, a group of young men and women nonchalantly kicked a soccer ball outside the gates of the Dominican Republic's embassy in Bogota, Colombia. Inside the compound, Ambassador Diogenes Mallol was entertaining fellow members of the diplomatic corps in celebration of his country's independence day. Around noon, U.S. Ambassador Diego C. Asencio, 48, a Spanish-born career diplomat, said his farewells. Just as he was moving toward his armored Chrysler Imperial limousine, the soccer players pulled automatic weapons from their gym bags and blasted their way through the embassy gates. After a two-hour gun battle with police and bodyguards, the bogus athletes were masters of the compound. One attacker lay dead and at least five other people were wounded, including two policemen.

Among the estimated 50 hostages were Asencio and 14 other ambassadors, including those of Uruguay, Austria, Switzerland, Israel, Egypt, Mexico, Haiti, Brazil and the Vatican. The terrorists identified themselves as members of the April 19 Movement, or M-19, one of the most active of Colombia's half-dozen guerrilla groups. Their demands: a $50 million ransom, publication of their revolutionary manifestoes and the release of all political prisoners, many of whom are M-19 members facing trial by court-martial on charges ranging from armed robbery to kidnaping and murder.

A guerrilla spokesman, calling himself "Commandante Numero Uno," warned that the terrorists would begin "executing the hostages as a security measure" if soldiers and riot police near the embassy compound were not withdrawn by the Colombian government. After several sporadic exchanges of gunfire, the shooting quieted down, and both sides settled in for what could become a long siege. Vowed the self-styled commandante: "We're prepared to stay here one or two months if necessary."

For some of the captives, the wait was not that long. Preliminary negotiations led to the release of 13 hostages, including the wounded Paraguayan charge d'affaires Rafael Velez Pareja and ten women. Looking pale and distraught, some of them clad in elegant spike heels and furs, the women were whisked away from the scene in government cars. Also removed was the body of a 19-year-old guerrilla shot by Asencio's bodyguard during the seizure. He was still wearing his green sweatsuit, a black kerchief covering his face.

In exchange, Colombian Red Cross volunteers carted 20 crates of food and supplies into the embassy compound and sent in doctors to treat a wounded woman guerrilla. At week's end the remain ing five women hostages were freed by the terrorists. The way was thus paved for negotiations over the release of the hostages left behind.

Even by the peculiar standards of contemporary terrorism, M-19 stands out as a bizarre and incoherent group. It began in 1970 as a rightist movement supporting former Military Dictator Gustavo Rojas Pinilla, who ruled Colombia from 1953 to 1957. The strongly nationalist organization gradually incorporated leftists; its current ranks, according to a U.S. intelligence report, include Castroite, Guevarist, Maoist and Trotskyite revolutionaries.

Despite their ideological fuzziness, the M-19 guerrillas have shown a talent for spectacular, publicity-grabbing exploits. They first gained national attention in 1974 by stealing the sword and spurs of Liberator Simon Bolivar from a Bogota museum, claiming them for "the people who struggle for freedom." They have occasionally posed as Robin Hood-style benefactors, hijacking milk trucks and distributing their contents in the poor quarters of the crowded capital. More characteristic are their kidnapings and assassinations, including the ruthless murder of anti-Communist Labor Leader Jose Mercado Martinez in 1976. In their most daring feat, they tunneled into an army munitions depot and made off with 5,700 weapons in January 1979. Almost all the arms were recovered last year in a government crackdown that resulted in the arrest of more than 400 suspected M-19 members.

When word of the seizure reached him in Washington, Secretary of State Cyrus Vance responded with one of the angriest statements of his diplomatic career. Said Vance: "This despicable and dishonorable act is another example of terrorist violence against accredited foreign personnel. It cannot be excused or condoned."

But the incident in Bogota was only the latest in a long series of embassy seizures and assaults on diplomats throughout the world. While international attention has focused on the Iranian militants' occupation of the U.S. embassy in Tehran, there have been a dozen embassy seizures in Latin America alone since Jan. 1. Worldwide, there have been 25 serious attacks on diplomatic property and personnel in the past year, including the assassination of U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Adolph Dubs by rightist Muslim terrorists in February 1979. The ancient principle of diplomatic immunity seems in danger of breaking down entirely --a victim of an age in which unprincipled terrorism is now all but taken for granted.

Even as the vigil continued in Bogota, leftist students in Panama stormed the Salvadoran embassy and seized six hostages; three hours later, they ended their occupation. The reason for the short-lived attack: a protest against political repression in El Salvador, where the civilian-military junta has been under intense criticism from both left and right. Fearing an imminent right-wing coup against the reform-minded junta, the State Department last week sternly warned rightist elements in the military and landholding oligarchy against any grab for power. Said one senior U.S. official: "We think the message has come through."

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