came. About 3:00 p.m, the mobs broke into the police headquarters. The major in charge, Benicio Arce Vera, came out unarmed to plead with the crowd, and gave orders to his men not to shoot. The mob trampled him and seized weapons and ammunition. According to Arce, in an interview years later to Bohemia magazine, among those who took the weapons was Fidel Castro, (La Habana, April 21, 1983, issue 16). Some writers say that this event influenced Castro at the age of 21, who had the opportunity to witness the initial violence and take views about the viability of an electoral route for political change. Others view it more darkly since Castro at that age had already been involved in violence in Cuba where he is reputed to have killed, or tried to kill, some university rivals (including Rolando Masferrer) by that time (Ros, 2003). The leaders of the Liberal party were still in the hospital, next to Gaitán's body, overwhelmed and at a loss as to how the chaos might be controlled. They received a phone call from the presidential palace, inviting them to a meeting to try to resolve their differences and find a solution. However, because of the conflict in the streets, the Liberal leaders could not reach the palace - some received shotgun wounds. Eventually they asked for a military escort, and successfully reached the palace. However, President Ospina was surprised to see the Liberal leaders, since the invitation had been made by some of his ministers without his knowledge. Discussions went throughout the night, but failed to reach an agreement. The murder of Gaitán was followed by widespread confusion. Civilians took to the streets of the centro district sacking public buildings. Among these were the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Public Health, the offices of the public prosecutor and the Ministry of Communications. The rioting also extended to private property with 157 buildings in the downtown area suffering serious damage, 103 of these were a total loss. Many were killed over struggles for stolen goods. All sorts of merchandise was carried off to the poorer outlying districts. As reported some days later by Semana magazine (issue #78, April 24/1948), people started to sell the stolen objects at extremely low prices, or just exchanged the merchandise for alcohol. In the following days, a market for selling the stolen goods was set up, which was