Jaime Bateman
| Jaime Bateman Cayon | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
April 23, 1940 Santa Marta, Colombia |
| Died | April 28, 1983 (aged 43) San Blas, Panama |
Jaime Bateman Cayón aka el flaco "Skinny" or Pablo by his fellow guerrilleros (April 23, 1940 in Santa Marta, Magdalena – April 28, 1983) was a Colombian guerrilla leader and both founder and commander of the 19th of April guerrilla movement.
Bateman grew up in an environment of social movements, his mother Clementina Cayón was an advocate of political prisoner and militant in the Liberal Revolutionary Movement (MRL) a dissident group from the Colombian Liberal Party. Bateman was raised mostly by his stepfather Jorge Olarte. Bateman was born in Santa Marta in the Caribbean region northern Colombia among colonial Spanish houses. At the age of eight Bateman was run over by an automobile while crossing a street in the neighboring city of Barranquilla fracturing his tibia and fibula. He almost lost his leg in this incident and left him with a defect in his leg. He swam for therapy.
Years later he met Carlos Romero who was arriving from Argentina, where he had been an active militant in the Communist Party of Argentina during the presidency of Juan Domingo Perón. Romero influenced Bateman and convinced him to join the Communist Youth (Juventudes Comunistas, JUCO) and form the first group of communists in the Colombian state of Magdalena.
In 1957, while a student at the Liceo Celedón, civic strikes broke out throughout Colombia to protest the dictatorship of Gustavo Rojas Pinilla. These strikes were organized by the two main political parties, the Liberal and Conservative parties. Bateman participated in the marches and became a student activist.
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