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.
[1] Roa Sierra's former lover, María de Jesús Forero, with whom he had a daughter, was reported by newspaper El Tiempo as saying that he used to listen to Gaitán's conferences on the radio.
[1] It is claimed that at the time of the murder Roa Sierra was unemployed, and that people described him as a lazy dreamer and extremely quiet and reserved.
[1] According to the assistant of Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, Cecilia de González, Roa Sierra went several times to the office two months before the assassination, but she never gave him an appointment with the lawyer.
In El Crimen del Siglo Torres describes Roa Sierra's disappointment in Gaitán after the latter refused to offer the former a job or any financial help and simply directed him to seek assistance from the government.
Several accounts of the events claim that Gaitán's apparent disregard for Roa Sierra's economic hardship could have triggered the assassination, although Torres himself expresses doubts as to Roa Sierra's authorship of the crime and instead affirms that the alleged murderer was actually coerced by political and possibly foreign forces to eliminate the man who was likely to become the next president.
Gert declared that Roa Sierra had had a dream about treasure in two indigenous towns not too far from Bogotá, and that he felt destiny was going to give him something important.
Brothers Luis Enrique and José Ignacio Rincón, workmates of Roa Sierra at the time of the events, testified it was from them that he had bought the defective murder weapon for 75 pesos after assuring them he needed it to go treasure-hunting with some foreigners.
Police corporal Carlos Alberto Jiménez Díaz and Sargeant Galvis González arrived at the scene as soon as the shots were heard.
The news spread quickly and an enraged mob developed in short time yelling "mataron al doctor Gaitán" ("they killed Dr.
[1] According to a translation made by the United States embassy of an article published on April 16, 1948, by the newspaper El Tiempo [2], Roa was 25 years old at the time of his death.
In Vivir para contarla Gabriel García Márquez has some issues with the Scotland Yard report with the number of siblings and mentions that in the documents found in Roa's pocket, his address was given as Calle 8 No.
His behavior might have changed after getting involved with Rosicrucianism, to which he was introduced by a German named Umland Gerat eighteen months before the assassination of Gaitan.
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.