Juan Roa Sierra - Days Before The Assassination

Days Before The Assassination

The last visit to Gerat occurred on April 7, two days before the assassination. Gerat declared that Roa had had a dream about a treasure in two indigenous towns not too far from Bogota and that he felt destiny was going to give him something important. Gerat suggested that he not go alone, but Roa rejected this. On this same date Roa purchased the weapon and the next day he bought the ammunition. Two witnesses said they had heard Roa say he was going to serve as bodyguard for two foreigners who were going on a trip to a desolated land. One foreigner, Rafael del Pino was known to have been in contact with Roa ninety minutes before the assassination, according to police reports. Del Pino was traveling with another Cuban that the police felt also deserved a "well-grounded suspicion" for this assassination, Fidel Castro, who was also observed in the immediate vicinity of the assassination.(Weyl 1960, pp. 34–35) These two Cubans immediately fled to the Cuban Legation just in time to avoid arrest.(Weyl 1960, pp. 34–35).

According to the assistant of Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, Cecilia de González, Roa went several times to the office two months before the assassination, but she never gave him the opportunity to see him.

The day of the assassination Roa visited the office at 9:30 AM. Gaitan had arrived a little before 8 AM even though he had been awake until late because he attended the trial of Lieutenant Jesús María Córtez Poveda, his client. The building security guard saw him with another person (later identified as César Bernal Ordóñez ) but Roa solicited the interview alone.

The angry mob grew in front of the drug store where the police had taken him for refuge, finally the situation was so menacing that the iron shutters of the drugstore were opened. Roa's was then kicked and stabbed by a massive mob until he was "an almost shapeless corpse"; then his body was left in front of the Presidential Palace.(Weyl 1960, pp. 17–19, 34–35)