Word: asencio
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...white Cubana Airlines jet roared off the runway of Bogotá's El Dorado Airport Sunday morning for an unscheduled flight to Havana. Among the passengers were twelve diplomatic hostages, including U.S. Ambassador to Colombia Diego Asencio, and 15 armed members of the so-called M-19 guerrilla group. Four other diplomats and two Colombian civilians had been allowed to leave the plane minutes before takeoff; the remaining hostages were to be liberated upon arrival in Cuba, where President Fidel Castro had offered sanctuary to the terrorists. Thus ended the 61-day siege at the Dominican Republic embassy...
...contrast, the U.S. Ambassador, Spanish-born Diego Asencio, in his own daily phone calls to U.S. officials was reported to be maintaining steady nerves and preparing for a long siege. One grim alternative, of course, was an armed assault on the embassy. But, as one antiterrorist specialist on the scene warned, "that could be very, very bloody...
...control of the compound they seized almost two weeks ago in a gunfight during an Independence Day reception given by the Dominican Ambassador. They had a bonanza of prisoners: more than a score of diplomats from 18 countries, including the papal nuncio; Washington's respected Spanish-born envoy, Diego Asencio, 48, and 13 other ambassadors...
Among the estimated 50 hostages were Asencio and 14 other ambassadors, including those of Uruguay, Austria, Switzerland, Israel, Egypt, Mexico, Haiti, Brazil and the Vatican. The terrorists identified themselves as members of the April 19 Movement, or M-19, one of the most active of Colombia's half-dozen guerrilla groups. Their demands: a $50 million ransom, publication of their revolutionary manifestoes and the release of all political prisoners, many of whom are M-19 members facing trial by court-martial on charges ranging from armed robbery to kidnaping and murder...
...affaires Rafael Vélez Pareja and ten women. Looking pale and distraught, some of them clad in elegant spike heels and furs, the women were whisked away from the scene in government cars. Also removed was the body of a 19-year-old guerrilla shot by Asencio's bodyguard during the seizure. He was still wearing his green sweatsuit, a black kerchief covering his face...