1980 Dominican Embassy siege in Bogotá
| Dominican Republic Embassy Siege | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Colombian armed conflict | |||||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
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Government of Colombia Colombian army |
19th of April Movement | ||||||||
The Dominican Republic Embassy siege was the 1980 siege of the embassy of the Dominican Republic by M-19 guerrillas in Bogotá, Colombia. The guerrillas held nearly 60 people, including 14 ambassadors, hostage for 61 days.
The siege began on the mid-day of February 27, 1980, when seventeen guerrillas dressed in the warm-up clothes of joggers stormed the embassy compound, located in a suburb of Bogotá. Many diplomats were attending a diplomatic reception celebrating the Dominican Independence Day and consequently were taken hostage. The guerrillas, wielding grenades, AK-47's, and Rosemberg Pabón held a Browning 9MM as support to control the situation, wounded five people in the storming of the embassy. A 17-year-old guerrilla was killed initially by the police.
The hostages included the Papal nuncio to Colombia, Angelo Acerbi, as well as the ambassadors from fourteen countries: Austria, Brazil, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Egypt, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Israel, Mexico, Switzerland, the United States (Diego C. Asencio), Uruguay, and Venezuela. Also among the hostages were diplomats from Bolivia, Jamaica, Paraguay and Peru, and Colombian civilians and workers at the embassy.
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