CHROINICLE OF A SHEATHED ROBBERY
By Manuel Francisco Carreño
The Sword of Dreams
Reviewing the Quinta de Bolívar’s guestbook allows to identify a very curious fact. Among all the objects in the Quinta that actually belonged to El Libertador, there is one claimed above all the others. Curiously, this object is not in the Quinta, and, thus, an account about it is more than needed. In the last twenty five years, Bolívar’s sword has become one of the country’s most important antiques. Nonetheless, no one under twenty five has seen it. So, a simple museum piece became fundamental to Colombian culture, for it built a legend around itself, thus becoming an element of unity in a nation with a great need for such things. Next is the story of a sword whose main cutting edge is the spirit of independence, and whose hilt is made of dreams of freedom. This is the story of the M-19 and the sword of Bolívar.
The Idea
In the early 70’s, Lucho Otero was a member of the FARC who was trying to form an urban group for the organization he belonged to. He followed Jacobo Arenas’ and Manuel Marulanda’s orders. In those times, Otero and other guerrillas, among whom was Jaime Bateman, read a book about the Tupamaros, the Uruguayan guerrilla group that had stolen the flag of José Gervasio Artigas, Uruguay’s liberator. After reading this book an idea occurred to Otero: Stealing Bolívar’s sword. Otero shared his idea with Bateman, who then suggested proposing it to the FARC. “That happened around the ‘70. El flaco went to the directors of the Communist Party and told them about his idea. They answered that it wasn’t worth it, that the sword was just a museum piece” [19]. Bateman, Otero and some others drew apart from the Party, and wanted to form an urban armed struggle group. In 1973, no longer with the FARC and again inspired by the Tupamaros, they formed a rather unknown movement called “Los Comuneros”, which only lasted from February to October 1973. This movement developed the first intelligence operations that lead to the robbery of Bolívar’s sword in 1974.
The Bolivarian Symbol
The sword of Bolívar would not only become the movement’s symbol, it would also be the base for an original way of thinking within the leftist movements in Colombia: The Bolivarian Thought. Up to that time, Colombian guerrilla groups were inspired by the Soviet and Chinese revolutions, “up to that moment the Colombian guerrillas were arguing about whether to follow Moscow or Beijing, whether to be Leninist or Maoist. Instead, we were nationalist” [20]. The
M-19 created a movement with an approach closer to Colombian historical and traditional symbols. They thought of historical figures who had fought for the country rather that of revolutions of faraway lands. It seemed that the new insurgent group that began to form in 1973 saw those ideals of Latin-American struggle, represented by Bolívar, as a strong ideological base.
All this sought to give the revolution an identity the people could feel represented with. “We wanted a movement for the country, for the common people, the people willing to change this country. An nationalism was a factor we didn’t see in the FARC. We began to think in the type of military and political operations that could be related to Bolívar. We wanted to vindicate him, to retrieve him from the manuals of history” [21]. Bolívar had an image of a fighter against oppression, of a man that had raised his sword to defend and protect his people. This is what the M-19 wanted to do, and in that plan Lucho Otero’s idea fitted perfectly.
The Robbery
Once the M-19 was properly created, and once the idea of Lucho Otero was again in order, the operations to “put Bolívar’s sword back in the struggle” began. They did an advertising campaign to create expectation and to let the people know what it was all about. On February 15, 16 and 17, 1974, some curious messages appeared on the main newspapers. They read: “Parasites? Worms? Memory loss? M-19 is coming soon”. People in the streets tried to guess what the M-19 was. Almost everyone though it was some kind of medicine. But as everyone tried to guess, the members of the movement set every detail for the definitive act in the Quinta de Bolívar.
The last advertising message appeared on February 17. It simply said “The M-19 is coming soon”. That same day they stole the sword and took over the Council of Bogotá. Álvaro Fayad, known as El Turco, was in charge of the operation. It started at 5 p.m., when the security personnel were intimidated and the lock on the door of the room opposite to Manuelita Sáenz’s, where the sword was kept, was broken. Fayad broke the urn that contained the sword and raised it in his arms. “I take this sword with my hands. I’m impressed, it’s so short. What a sensation it is to have it, to hold it!” Fayad said in Olga Behar’s book. They left the Quinta in a lent Renault 12 after leaving behind flyers that explained what the M-19 was, why it had been born and who were its enemies.
The Route of the Sword
The commotion caused by the loss of the sword came right away; it was on the front pages of every newspaper, which showed the mixture of indignation and surprise Colombians felt. Some days later there were special reports on the sword’s origin. “The Sword: A Symbol” was El Tiempo’s headline. Curiously, this was the first time the sword was mentioned in the press. It seemed that people cared for the sword only when it was stolen. It had been lying in the Quinta de Bolívar for fifty years, almost totally forgotten.
The day after the theft, headlines spoke of big operations to recover the sword. These operations never succeeded, in part because the M-19 knew always how to keep it safe. In the days after the robbery, the sword was kept in a whorehouse in Bogotá, and it was two months later transported to León de Greiff’s house. The poet was always a supporter of the guerrilla group. So began the sword’s journey, which passed through the homes of poet Luis Vidales and other Colombian artists and intellectuals. I spent some time in an apartment in the Santa Bárbara neighborhood and in a country house near Bogotá before being taken to Cuba, in 1980.
The Order of the Keepers of the Sword was created in 1986, and it included people who supported the causes of the M-19 such as Fidel Castro, Ómar Torrijos, and the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo [22]. For all these years, the sword of Bolívar was on the mind of all Colombians. Now that it was invisible, it was more important than it could have ever been when it was visible to all. Two hundred years after being held by Bolívar, the sword, just as so many weapons in World’s History, had become a myth.
A Happy Comeback?
In 1990 winds of hope passed through Colombia. A new president from a new generation, an armed group laying down its arms, and the birth of a new National Constituent Assembly were all parts of this new hope. Colombia seemed to have a fresh start after all the problems that tormented the country. In this fresh start a gesture of hope seemed appropriate: The M-19 returned the sword. “We decided to give the sword back in the last months of 1990, when it was clear there would be a constituent assembly. We wanted to be sure the whole process had no turning back before returning the sword” [23]. “The M-19 was always coherent with what it did and what it said. We were no longer at war, so giving it back was a honorable farewell from our times in secrecy” [24], said Arjaid Artunduaga, the foremost historian of the M-19, and the person in charge of going to Cuba to retrieve the sword.
This decision was highly controversial among the members of the subversive group, especially because it was made without consulting them. One of the guerrillas who took part in the operation of the Quinta, María Eugenia Vázquez, said she was never asked about giving the sword back. “It was a shame because that sword was my personal Excalibur”. Besides, the
M-19 had said that the sword would not be returned until there were justice and independence in Colombia, rather than until the M-19 ceased to exist. Nonetheless, those who returned it defend what they did. Antonio Navarro said that “it was impossible to keep the sword after abandoning the armed struggle. Legally, it would have been a problem to keep it any longer”. Arjaid Artunduaga said that “an instrument of war only makes sense in times of war”.
Therefore, on January 31 1991, the sword was returned to The Quinta de Bolívar. There was a public act in which Antonio Navarro gave the sword to the children of the M-19 commanders. Curiously, coverage in the media was not as wide as expected. A simple note appeared on El Tiempo’s front page, and the Semana magazine did not even mention the act. Perhaps, this was so because the tragic death of Diana Turbay had just happened, and this fact had drawn the country’s attention. Or perhaps, the devolution of the sword was not as impacting as its robbery, for the myth was now over.
The devolution of the sword to the Quinta was symbolical rather that real. The sword remained in the Quinta de Bolívar just until the ceremony was over. It was immediately transferred to a closed vault in the Bank of the Republic. It has been there since. Thus, the symbol of struggle and liberty is once again paradoxically locked. A new robbery is feared, for it is clear this sword does not like stillness.
It has therefore been decided to unlock this mythical sword by exhibiting it in the cyberspace. This virtual exhibition will feed the dreams of freedom of new generations that long for it. There are many people who know about it, and wish to relive the history this sword represents. The virtual exhibition of the sword of Bolívar will make this possible.
