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On the eve of the second round of the presidential elections that Sunday, June 21, 1998, there was consensus in the polls that Horacio Serpa Uribe was the favorite and the certainty that he was the candidate for peace. One photograph, however, not only turned the trend upside down, allowed his rival, Andrés Pastrana Arango, to become Head of State but forever changed the course of the country’s history.
(Can read: ‘Peace! Horacio’s only passion that exceeds the one he has for Rosita ‘)
Serpa was convinced of seeking a negotiated solution to the armed conflict and for that he had surrounded himself with a team of enthusiastic experts on the guerrillas to develop his government program.
In fact, he, like few others, knew them thoroughly because he had been the head of the negotiating team in the Tlaxcala Peace Dialogues in 1992, before the FARC commanders “Alfonso Cano”, “Iván Márquez” and “Pablo Catatumbo, and Antonio García del Eln.
Likewise, Serpa had won the first round over Pastrana and distant from Noemí Sanín and even much further from retired General Harold Bedoya, who finished third and fourth.
(We suggest: Horacio Serpa, the last of the liberal caudillos)
However, a few days before the election, on June 15, Víctor G. Ricardo, advisor to the Pastrana campaign, had a meeting in the FARC camps with two of their most symbolic leaders: Manuel Marulanda Vélez, alias ‘Tirofijo’, the number one; and Jorge Briceño, ‘Mono Jojoy’, military chief of the organization.
In an old house in the middle of the jungle, surrounded by some 300 heavily armed men, he spent five hours meeting with them. To a general surprise, the Farc told him that they wanted to negotiate with Pastrana in case he won.
‘El mono Jojoy’ Andrés Pastrana, at that time president-elect of Colombia, Manuel Marulanda and Víctor G. Ricardo.
The history of the photo that changed the history of the country
When the meeting was about to end, an enthusiastic Ricardo took off his watch, which had the emblem of the Pastranista campaign, went to ‘Tirofijo’ and said: “Mr. Marulanda, I want to give you this watch. Take a good look at it. It has great significance. Keep it in your hands because this watch will mark the hour of peace ”.
Ricardo himself put it on the wrist of the left hand of ‘Tirofijo’. Then he told them that it would be good if the three of them took a photo to leave a graphic record of such a historic encounter.
Upon returning to Bogotá, that was the image that the campaign profusely disseminated with the idea that if Pastrana won with him, peace would be signed.
After the photo of Ricardo with ‘Tirofijo’ and ‘Jojoy’, Pastrana won the elections. The conservative candidate obtained 50.39% of the votes compared to the liberal who was left with 46.53%. The analysts of the moment highlighted in the victory what was called the vote of ‘Tirofijo’.
The photo that changed history. ‘El mono Jojoy’, Víctor G. Ricardo, then from the Pastrana campaign, and Manuel Marulanda Vélez, with the conservative leader’s watch.
Later, as president-elect, the country was excited to see another series of photos and a video. His meeting with the FARC chief.
(Don’t miss out on reading: Goodbye to Horacio Serpa Uribe, a freehand liberal)
The revelation was made by Pastrana himself, who said that the purpose of this meeting was to explore ways that make possible a dialogue that leads to national reconciliation. “I offered it in my campaign and today I am fulfilling the country.”
It was the first time in the history of Colombia that an elected president met with the main leader of an armed insurgent group. The video showed them both walking across the plain.
The story had changed. During his administration, more precisely in 1983, President Belisario Betancur had a meeting in Spain with the leaders of the then insurgent movement M-19, Alvaro Fayad and Ivan Marino Ospina.
I offered it in my campaign and today I am serving the country
However, Pastrana’s was more symbolic because it was the first summit of a Head of State in Colombian territory, with members of the subversion.
But why choose Pastrana when Serpa had dedicated a good part of his life to working for peace and his center-left ideology was more related?
Several FARC commanders answered this concern to a group of journalists during the peace negotiations in Caguán: Pastrana told them that if he won the Presidency, he would clear the five municipalities they wanted.
In extension it was 42,000 square kilometers and included the municipalities of La Uribe, Mesetas, La Macarena and Vista Hermosa in the department of Meta, and San Vicente del Caguán in the department of Caquetá, the equivalent of a country like Switzerland.
(We suggest: ‘A cycle to which I never sensed an end concludes’: Uribe on Serpa)
The other was what came to be known over time: The FARC did not want to sign a peace agreement but they needed that space to prepare militarily. Why? At that time they were convinced that they could truly defeat the Colombian state. They were buying time, according to this interpretation.
In fact, during the demilitarized zone, it was common to see columns of between 1,000 and 2,000 heavily armed guerrilla fighters training with iron discipline.
Ricardo was appointed by Pastrana as his commissioner for Peace. He soon discovered that the negotiation was already at a different price.
The FARC even ended up turning their back on Serpa. In the country the idea began to spread that the guerrillas did what they wanted and he himself went to protest in Caguán for its arbitrariness:
His speech is yes to a negotiated policy, but that does not mean that the Colombian State did not use the Public Force, the Army and the Police to counter the actions of the guerrillas. “I’ll tell you in your own beard,” Serpa said.
A guerrilla fighter stopped him dead with a submachine gun that he placed on his own chest.
And while the FARC were in the calm zone, they had decided to launch a fierce offensive in the rest of the country.
For the citizens it was incomprehensible that a group that spoke of peace, simultaneously intensified the practice of kidnapping with what it called miraculous fishing, took soldiers and policemen to fatten the list of exchangeable items, assaulted towns, burned ambulances and even hijacked airplanes.
Negotiations with the FARC did not advance and time passed and the anguish in the government was evident because they sensed that it was going to fail.
(Further: Former presidential candidate Horacio Serpa died at 77)
At that time, the young leader Álvaro Uribe managed to channel these feelings with a brief and unique speech: “We must end the FARC.”
In the 2002 and 2006 elections, Serpa ran again. At that time, the country did not want to know anything about a reconciliation and leaned towards the then former governor of Antioquia.
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