Foreign Relations of the United States, 1948, The Western Hemisphere, Volume IX

821.00/4–948: Telegram

The Ambassador in Colombia ( Beaulac ) to the Acting Secretary of State

confidential

Bogotá , April 9, 1948—3 p. m.

190. Liberal Party chief Jorge Gaitan was shot and killed about 1:15 p. m. today on Carrera Septima and Jimenez de Quesada in central Bogotá. Mob seized and killed assassin, dragged corpse to front Presidential Palace, then hanged it on public street. Mob invaded Capitolio, seat of Pan American Conference, ransacking building and attempting set fire at least one wing. Within one hour after Gaitan’s assassination, armed individuals and bands began looting shops, with determined attacks on hardware shops to obtain weapons, including machetes, iron pipes, guns, etc. Bomb was thrown into ground floor Edificio Americano where offices U.S. delegation housed on seventh floor.¹

Beaulac

1. For an article entitled “Bogotá, April 9”, by Cecil B. Lyon, Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary for Political Affairs (Armour), and Adviser to the United States Delegation, see The American Foreign Service Journal, vol. 25, No. 5, May 1948, p. 7. See also USDel Report, pp. 6–8.