COLOMBIA: Anniversary

A year ago, Jorge Eliécer Gaitán fell to the pavement on Bogotá's Carrera Séptima, dead of an assassin's bullets. The death of Liberal Firebrand Gaitán touched off the bloody riots that Colombians now call el bogotanazo. To forestall possible trouble on the April 9 anniversary, Conservative President Mariano Ospina Pérez forbade mass meetings that day. Liberal leaders promptly called the faithful to memorial services on April 8.

All through the sunny morning, delegations heaped wreaths on the spot where Gaitán fell. Then, in a 30-block-long procession, they streamed toward the green lawns of the capital's Parque Nacional. The crowd—some 180,000 strong—was the biggest Bogotá (pop. 400,000) had ever seen. At 1:05 p.m., the hour of their martyr's death, screaming horns and sirens made a louder racket than any New Year's celebration the city had ever heard. There was no violence.

In recent months the Liberals, especially the Gaitanista faction, had seemed to be losing strength. After last week's massive, disciplined demonstration, Colombia's Conservatives began to reconsider their chances in next June's elections.