Juan Roa Sierra

Juan Roa Sierra (November 4, 1921 – April 9, 1948) was a Colombian known for assassinating Colombian Liberal leader and presidential candidate Jorge Eliécer Gaitán on April 9, 1948. After he shot Gaitán three times, mortally wounding him, a mob chased Roa Sierra down and killed him. The assassination of Gaitan triggered El Bogotazo, riots that partially destroyed Bogota and led to La Violencia, a period of violence that lasted until approximately 1958.

A fictionalized account of his final days was presented in the 2013 feature film Roa.

Background Roa Sierra was the youngest child of Rafael Roa and Encarnación Sierra and had 13 siblings. In his book El Crimen del Siglo ("The Crime of the Century") writer and playwright Miguel Torres reports that Juan Roa Sierra was born in the neighbourhood "Egipto" (Egypt) in Bogotá, very near the humble residence where Jorge Eliécer Gaitán was born. His father was a stonemason and died from a respiratory illness, probably caused by his work.

Roa Sierra had had various jobs, primarily like his father as a stonemason. These two Cubans immediately fled to the Cuban Legation just in time to avoid arrest. It was reported that Roa Sierra begged to Jiménez "no me mate, mi cabo" (don't kill me, corporal). Jiménez is also reported to have taken him hastily to a drugstore to protect him from the incensed crowd.

The angry mob grew in front of the drugstore that was sheltering Roa Sierra. Finally the situation was so menacing that the iron shutters of the drugstore were opened. Roa Sierra's body was then kicked and stabbed by the massive mob until he was "an almost shapeless corpse"; then his body was left in front of the Presidential Palace. Castro had attempted to recruit Gaitán earlier to his cause, but Gaitán had repeatedly declined and was assassinated because he was too politically influential and would have countered the Cold War objectives of the Soviets in the Caribbean.

Weyl documents the claim by Ospina Pérez and others that Roa was influenced by others and perhaps did not commit any crime at all. He discusses the questions raised by Milton Bracker of The New York Times and U.S. Ambassador Willard L. Beaulac of whether Roa had acted on his own. Ambassador Beaulac then speculated that Roa was simply used to cover the identity of the real assassins. Ospina Pérez and Azula Barrera considered the evidence that the revolver Roa had carried was incapable of accurate fire, that Roa was not thought to have any firearms training, the assassination had been committed at some distance, and that no eyewitness saw Roa anywhere near the assassination, that he was first seen between two policemen. From this evidence the government of Colombia concluded that the impoverished Roa with his diminished mental capacities had been paid to stand near the event with a recently fired revolver.