Iván Torres leads his men inside the Palace of Justice.
The Palace of Justice siege occurred between November 6-7, 1985 when 40 heavily armed guerrillas of the M-19 movement stormed and took over the premises of Colombia's Supreme Court.
The guerrillas, led by Iván Torres, made demands about the redistribution of wealth and an end to injustice and tyranny. However, they actually took over the palace to burn and destroy nearly 6,000 pages of evidence incriminating Medellín cartel leader Pablo Escobar, who ordered and financed the operation. The guerrillas also killed half of the judges of the Supreme Court. A brutal firefight ensured after the Colombian Army stormed the building and killed many of the M-19 gunmen. The Supreme Court building was also severely damaged.
Torres and a few other guerrillas escaped the building after destroying the evidence, and met with Escobar. The drug lord thanked them for their service, and returned them the sword of Simon Bolivar, which Torres gave to Escobar in 1981. However, immediately afterwards, Escobar's sicarios open fired on the surviving guerrilas and killed everyone, including Torres.
Aftermath[]
Elisa Álvarez, a high ranking M-19 member who refused to work from drug traffickers, defected to the DEA after the meeting between Escobar and Torres prior to the attack. She revealed Escobar's role in the attack to the DEA, which allowed the DEA to receive US military and CIA assistance. Steve Murphy later had his wife Connie smuggle Elisa out of the country, as it was illegal to use her as a witness due to her communist links.
The CIA arrested M-19 affiliated priest Ernesto Sobrino and had him waterboarded.