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The Dominican embassy siege was the 1980 Siege of the Embassy of the Dominican Republic by M-19 guerrillas in Bogotá , Colombia . The guerrillas held nearly 60 people, including 14 Ambassador s, Hostage for 61 days. THE SIEGE The siege began on the night of February 27 , 1980 , when seventeen guerrillas dressed in the warm-up clothes of Jogger s stormed the embassy compound, located in a suburb of Bogotá. Many diplomats were attending a diplomatic reception celebrating the Dominican Independence Day and consequently were taken hostage. The guerrillas, wielding grenades and automatic rifles, wounded five people in the storming of the embassy. A 17-year-old guerrilla was killed initially by police. The hostages included the '', Brazil , Costa Rica , the Dominican Republic , Egypt , El Salvador , Guatemala , Haiti , Israel , Mexico , Switzerland , the United States , Uruguay , and Venezuela . Also among the hostages were diplomats from Bolivia , Jamaica , Paraguay , and Peru , and Colombia n civilians and workers at the embassy. The gunmen demanded $50 million, to be raised from the countries whose diplomats were held hostage. They also sought the release of 311 jailed comrades. Their leader icalled himself "Commandante Uno;" he was later identified as Rosemberg Pabón . Colombian authorities began negotiating with the guerrillas after they threatened to kill the hostages. On February 28 , eighteen people, including the Costa Rica n ambassador and fourteen other women, were freed by the hostage takers. Five more women were released on February 29 . Negotiations gained the release of four cooks and a waiter on March 2 . The Austrian ambassador was freed on March 7 . On March 8 , the guerrillas reduced their demands to free 311 prisoners to seventy and lowered the amount of money requested to $10 million. Early on March 17 , the Uruguay an ambassador, Fernando Gomez , escaped from the embassy by jumping from a window and running to troops surrounding the compound. The same day, Fidel Castro offered the guerrillas Asylum in Cuba . From March 30 to April 19 , the guerrillas released the Costa Rica n consul and all of the remaining non-diplomatic hostages. They requested a meeting in Panama with Colombian leaders to resolve the crisis, but were denied by the Colombian government. Their demand for the release of a dozen prisoners was denied, though they were paid $2.5 million in Ransom money. On April 27 , the ambassadors from Venezuela , the Dominican Republic , Israel , and Egypt were released by the hostage takers, along with two Colombians. The sixteen guerrillas left the embassy with the remaining twelve diplomatic hostages and boarded a Cubana Airlines flight to Cuba. They were cheered by many Colombians waiting for them at the airport. They flew to Havana , where the diplomats were released and returned to their home countries. AFTERMATH The leader of the M-19 group, Rosemberg Pabón , promised to return to Colombia. After living in exile in Cuba , he eventually returned to Colombia after M-19 signed a peace treaty with the government in March 1990 . The M-19 group had been considerably weakened after Seizing The Colombian Palace Of Justice in November 1985 , which left dozens dead. The siege of the Dominican Embassy was the largest hostage-taking of diplomats in world history. FURTHER READING |
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