This is one of the great coincidences of history. Fidel, the dapper law student in the center, was scheduled to meet with Gaitan that afternoon. But Gaitan, the candidate of the people and the likely victor in the next presidential election, was murdered when he went out for lunch. And so, instead of a meeting, there was a riot that tore down much of el centro Bogotá and the beginning of a civil war that has continued, under different names, until today.