Carlos Pizarro Leongómez (6 June 1951 – 26 April 1990) was the fourth commander of the Colombian guerrilla group 19th of April Movement (Movimiento 19 de Abril) (M-19). Pizarro later ran for president of Colombia after the demobilization of M-19 that transformed the group into the political party, M-19 Democratic Alliance (Alianza Democrática M-19) (AD/M-19). Pizarro was assassinated on 26 April 1990.
Early years
He was the son of navy admiral Juan Antonio Pizarro and Margot Leongómez Matamoros. Admiral Pizarro had been appointed general commander of the Colombian Navy during the administration of Gustavo Rojas Pinilla. He was later appointed as military attaché at the Colombian Embassy in the United States and national representative to the Inter-American Defense Board, so the whole family moved to live in Washington, DC. Upon their return to Colombia, and following the retirement of his father from active duty in 1959, they settled in the city of Cali. Pizarro studied in several high schools and a boarding school in Bogotá, where he graduated as Bachelor.
He was admitted later in 1967 in the faculty of Law of the Jesuit Pontifical Xavierian University where two of his brothers were also studying law. There, Pizarro started becoming involved in political student activism which had become a worldwide phenomenon following the events of May 1968. Pizarro was involved in the organization of the only student strike of the university, and soon joined the Juventud Comunista Colombiana (JUCO, Colombian Communist Youth). As a result of his activism he and others in the movement, including his brother Eduardo were expelled from the University. Later Pizarro-Leongomez entered the National University of Colombia, where he continued his studies in Law and participated in political left-wing activism with JUCO.
The M-19
By this time, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, FARC) guerrilla had been growing in power and influence and had adopted a communist ideology after having started as a liberal movement. The leaders of the FARC started thinking of switching strategies and bringing the armed conflict to the big cities, and members like Jaime Batemán Cayon started working on the organization of an urban guerrilla movement, and to do so started to recruit the young members of the JUCO. Pizarro was among those who were contacted by the guerrilla, and following these early contacts an 18 year old Pizarro decided to move to the countryside without completing his degree to engage in social work in the zones marked by the political violence that had occurred during and after the La Violencia period, and which were under the control of communists who had been liberals during the time, including the regions of Puerto Boyacá and Yacopí. Around this time he finally made the decision to enlist in the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, FARC) in 1972 at the age of 18. This was not an uncommon decision during the time, and there he joined many of his future comrades in the M-19 like Jaime Batemán Cayon and Álvaro Fayad. During these days the guerrilla soldiers were essentially armed farmers and their economic support came for their growing crops to sell, with interspersed combats with the army. During this period Pizarro's seizures caused by disrhytmia worsened.
Pizarro and the young and few members of the urban front started to have confrontations with the traditional leaders of FARC who mostly disregarded them, and resented their views. Following the death by gun squad of a fellow urban guerrilla Luis Alfonso Gil Ospina for contravening the orders of his guerrilla superiors, and the discontent with the hierarchies and rigidization of the FARC, Pizarro decided to desert FARC on September 11, 1973, the very day of the death of Salvador Allende. Back in the city he reestablished his contact with his old friend Jaime Bateman, Álvaro Fayad "the Turk", Luis Otero Cifuentes, Vera Grabe, Iván Marino Ospina and others. Bateman had been working towards an urban guerrilla movement since his days at the FARC, and together they founded the April 19 Movement (M-19), at the end of 1973.