Strongman Gustavo Rojas Pinilla last week ceremoniously founded a Third Force political movement for Colombia, the only country in South America that has preserved until now the once-standard two-party system. As Rojas explained it, the Third Force will make no pitch for support from the "odious politicians" and the "oligarchs" of the historic Liberal and Conservative Parties. Rather it will stand, like the old Peronista Party in Argentina, on two legs: labor and the army.
To get the movement started, Rojas marshaled army, navy and air force men in Bogotá's broad Plaza Bolivar on the third anniversary of his seizure of power. Ranged on a platform at the foot of the statue of Liberator Simón Bolivar were a tall crucifix and eight urns containing the ashes of Colombian soldiers who fought in the Korean war and in the country's own backlands guerrilla war. Rojas then read off a solemn oath, swearing the servicemen, in the name of Jesus Christ and in the memory of Simon Bolivar, to "fight for the domination of the Third Force until Colombians lay down their political hatreds before the national banner." They took the oath. Next afternoon, at Bogotá's Campin stadium, Rojas likewise swore in a throng of youth, labor, farm and women's groups.
Three years ago, when Rojas stepped into power to stop a bloody civil war between rural Liberals and Conservatives, he had the enthusiastic backing of big majorities in both parties. He dribbled away his prestige among Colombia's literate upper crust, which includes the top politicians of both parties, by such despotic measures as closing newspapers wholesale and bloodily repressing student demonstrations. But Rojas feels certain that labor and peasants no longer look to the old Liberal and Conservative politicos for leadership. He hopes to sweep the dis-'illusioned into the Third Force.
In bidding for political support, Rojas can no longer claim the popular role of hero-peacemaker. The rural war has flared up again, with discontented backlanders increasingly joining guerrilla bands. In Tolima department last month, troops reportedly rounded up several hundred villagers in an area where several soldiers had been shot from ambush, and as a ruthless gesture of reprisal killed 80 or more of the prisoners. Rojas himself disclosed recently that the official war-death count for January was 390.