Efraín González Téllez

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Efraín González Téllez (* 1933 in Jesús María ; † June 9, 1965 in San José Obrero, Bogotá ) was a Colombian bandolero .

Life

Efraín Gonzalez Téllez was born in 1933 in the village of Jesús María near the town of Puente Nacional in the province of Veléz / Santander .

Criminal career

In 1958, the officer González deserted from the Colombian military and took revenge on the left-wing guerrillas who murdered his mother. He had to flee to Quindío in the region of the Bandoleros and became a member of the Cuadrilla of Jair Giraldo. In 1959 he killed a liberal journalist and was declared an enemy of the state by the army. Back in Santander, he recaptured land from the left guerrilla movement by force of arms and had the local warlord Carlos Bernal eliminated in order to manifest his power.

Promotion as Bandolero

Gonzalez was the absolute sole ruler of his "Imperio de la Violencia" from the province of Vélez / Santander to West Boyacá . His bravery and ferocity towards his enemies became part of his legendary reputation. He was seen by many as a social bandit and a kind of Colombian Robin Hood for helping the poor. His campaigns and military actions were initially directed against the army, political enemies and collaborators.

Efráin Gonzalez, also " Juan Moreno ", " Juanito ", respectfully called " Don Juan " or " El Siete Colores " in the emerald mines , was an extremely conservative and very religious man of his time. For a long time González was supported by conservative politicians for his motives, and the local Catholic Church in Chiquinquirá , the religious center of Colombia, also acted as his allies.

The alliance with the conservative politics of Colombia shows clear parallels to the biography of Carlos Castaño , who was also supposed to be abused by the country's power elites and then eliminated.

In 1960 the army cremated his family's new home in Chiquinquirá. González escaped, his fiancée, his young son and 13 of his relatives were beheaded. Before they were killed, the women were raped in front of the men. González swore revenge and began a bloody campaign of revenge against the liberals, in 1962 he had 18 people butchered in one of the many massacres.

Other massacres followed, such as the El Crucero massacre or the infamous “Masacre de la Flota Reina” when González attacked a bus on the route from Albania to Chiquinquirá and killed 24 civilians.

Control of the emerald mines

In 1960 the caciques and patrons of the emerald mines appointed him supreme warlord , supported by his vassal Humberto "El Ganso" Ariza-Ariza , in order to bring order and calm to the region. González and Ariza-Ariza helped the emerald traders gain absolute control over the Muzo mines and defused the conflict between planteros (farmers) and guaqueros (prospectors). In addition, he was justice of the peace for the region around San Pablo de Borbúr from 1960 to 1965, ruling on the life and death of the accused. There was an atmosphere of fear and respect for him. An invasion of the landless or by the civil war of the "Violencia" displaced persons, soldiers of fortune and adventurers settled numerous hut and wild tent camps in the emerald region to make the find of their lives in the mines. This led to constant tension and permanently harbored a great potential for conflict, which Efráin González Telez kept in check with a heavily armed balance of terror.

In 1961, new sensational Smarags were found in the Peñas Blancas mine and there were further immigrants, which were defended by the local residents at gunpoint. Efráin once publicly tearfully confessed his sins in front of a microphone in front of a large crowd and proclaimed that he would make all his riches available to the poor. This confession made him even more popular.

The war in the emerald mines escalated in the "Batalla de las Avispas" (Battle of the Wasps) and ended with the defeat of the bandoleros against the Colombian armed forces.

In 1965 he kidnapped the son of the millionaire "El Gallino" Vargas, whereupon the Colombian state declared war on him.

Persecution and death

González was pursued by over 200 soldiers in an unprecedented hunt in Colombian history and caught and shot in June 1965 in the working-class neighborhood of San José Obrero in Bogotá. The report of his death was written differently by the liberal newspapers El Tiempo and El Espectador than in the conservative El Siglo . The bandit was buried in Yopal among a large number of followers and supporters . An inscription mockingly reports on the hunt for him: " Aquí combatió un oscuro criminal contra doscientos valerosos soldados colombianos ".

aftermath

The house in which González was shot served as a place of pilgrimage for his followers long after his death. His death led to a power vacuum in the emerald region and the eruption of the “ Guerra Verde ”.

reception

His deeds were later shown by the Argentine filmmaker Dunav Kuzmanich in the drama " Sietecolores " and in some telenovelas, such as B. " Efráin " by Jairo Anibal Niño from 1980 glorified.

literature

  • Claudia Steiner: Un Bandolero para el recuerdo: Efraín Gonzaléz también conocido como "El Siete Colores". Dissertation. University of California, Berkeley 2001.
  • Eric R. Wolf: Peasant Wars of the Twentieth Century. Harper and Row, New York 1969, ISBN 978-0-8061-3196-2 .
  • Eric Wolf: Luz Verde. La violencia y la paz de las esmeraldas. Op Gráficas, Bogotá 1992, ISBN 958-33-0049-7 .
  • Alejo Vargas: Efraín González, La dramática vida de un asesino asesinado. Planeta, Bogotá 1993.
  • Maria Victoria Uribe: Limpiar la Tierra. Guerra y Poder entre Esmeralderos. Bogotá 1992, ISBN 958-644-016-8 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Claudia Steiner: Un Bandolero para el recuerdo: Efraín Gonzaléz también conocido como “El Siete Colores” , University of California, Berkeley, USA, 2001
  2. ↑ a b http://www.eltiempo.com/archivo/documento/MAM-232337
  3. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from April 24, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.lablaa.org
  4. ↑ a b c http://www.derechos.org/nizkor/colombia/libros/jinetes/cap1.html
  5. ↑ http://elopinablogger.blogspot.com/2009/09/la-guerra-verde-1.html
  6. ↑ El Tiempo, January 26, 1965 edition
  7. ↑ Here a dark criminal fought two hundred brave soldiers
personal data
SURNAME González Téllez, Efraín
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Colombian bandolero
DATE OF BIRTH 1933
PLACE OF BIRTH Jesus Maria
DATE OF DEATH June 9, 1965
Place of death San José Obrero, Bogotá