COLOMBIA: Busted Dictator

Following up its conviction of former Dictator Gustavo Rojas Pinilla for abusing power and enriching himself in office (TIME, March 30), the Colombian Senate last week abolished all Rojas' political rights, all his titles and honors. As he signed a document to acknowledge the sentence. Rojas automatically lost his monthly pension as a former President, his rank as lieutenant general, and his proud chest of trinkets, including the Order of Boyacá, the Military Cross, the Order of Admiral Padilla, the Police Star (in the degree of Grand Extraordinary Civic Star), the Cross of Aeronautical Merit, the Order of Sanitary Merit and the Order of June 13 (created by Rojas to commemorate the day he took power in 1953). The next step is up to the Colombia Supreme Court, which is studying the evidence and could add a prison term of up to twelve years.