Colombia: Deadly Debut

For all its long history of backlands savagery, Colombia has seen remarkably little organized Castroite activity. The roving bands fought either to settle indigenous political disputes or for the pure, murderous pleasure of it all. But now Castro seems to be dealing himself in—with a guerrilla outfit closely resembling the FALN terrorists in neighboring Venezuela.

Just after dawn one morning, a group of about 100 men invaded the town of Simacota (pop. 5,000), a small farming community in the Andean foothills 225 miles northeast of Bogotá. Wearing khaki uniforms and FALN-type arm...

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