Now eSports and gaming are a hype topic, projects in this area are developing quite quickly. The Dota 2 Final was watched by 106 million people around the world, while the NHL Final was only 10 million and the NBA Final was watched by less than 30 million. It is unlikely that this market will double every year, but the current audience is growing and getting richer. Teenagers turn into adults, but people who are passionate about games begin to earn, and therefore spend more and more on games.

Andrey Mikheev. Photo: Alexander Karnyukhin/Inc.

A popular topic is streaming (broadcasting games). Streamers and video bloggers are opinion leaders among a young audience. I remember when we filmed a streamer known for Dota game 2, for the first episode of YouTube show about gamers Men With Mics, young people with phones sat in the bushes and took a picture of him.

Esports in numbers

Sources: M19, NewZoo, Riot Games

$1,5

billion will exceed the size of the eSports market by 2020

18

million people- audience playing competitive esports games

286

million people will reach the audience of esports events viewers by 2020

80

million unique viewers watched the League of Legends finals in 2017

Andrey Mikheev. Photo: Alexander Karnyukhin/Inc.

Brands in esports

A year ago, an attempt to attract customers to eSports required a lot of persuasion. Almost 90% asked: “What is it?” I had to explain that this is a million-strong audience at the computers. About the same as when SMM appeared: people offered companies placement on social networks, and they were answered: “Why? Let's put up some billboards."

What is M19

M19 (LLC "Professional computer-sports

Club M19") is an esports organization founded in 2017 by former hockey player and businessman Andrey Mikheev and entrepreneurs Alexander Shlemin and Vladislav Krieger. Today, M19 is not only an esports team, but also a full-cycle digital agency that creates and places ads in esports communities, integrates brands into events, hosts esports tournaments, and works with esports streamers and bloggers.

The company employs almost 60 people, including freelancers and outsourcers (some in Moscow, some remotely). Clients include Coffee House, Ozon.ru, Red Bull, and others. M19's annual turnover exceeds $1 million.

M19 has four teams: League of Legends, Hearthstone, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds and FIFA. In 2017, the founders of M19 created a bootcamp - a training base in the Kaluga region with the infrastructure for training esports teams. One of the most successful tournaments organized by M19 was the Dota 2 tournament, with a total audience reach of 5 million people.

From game to business

We initially entered the market as a League of Legends esports team. But it's hard to make money by participating in tournaments - because it's hard to predict the results. Promising a sponsor that tomorrow you will become the best in your region and go to the World Cup is not a good idea. In addition, the popularity of certain players is an opaque story, so sponsors could not calculate future conversion and sales in any way.

We began to increase our expertise in the field of eSports and evolved into a company that makes b2b products understandable to sponsors. One such product is video. Streamers and bloggers have measurable KPIs - for example, 1 million YouTube video views cost from $5,000; these are understandable, from which you can build on. A complex story - when you integrate a brand into a show, into a team and onto a website - costs more.

Collaborations with traditional sports are also possible in this market, which help to reach a wider audience and receive long term value (long-term value - Inc.). You are selling a product not to one generation, but to two at once: for a child - a machine gun in Counter Strike, for dad - a Lokomotiv scarf. Or the father took the child to the stadium, watches football, and during the break, the Dota tournament is broadcast on the big screen - and both are satisfied. We have already tried this approach - now we are making joint media content (videos with players, contests, etc.) on the FIFA game and merchandise with FC Lokomotiv.

Participation in tournaments also brings income. For example, (publisher of "League of Legends" - Inc.) pays money for the performance of the team in the league (according to Bloomberg, Riot Games plans to give 32.5% of the income to teams participating in tournaments - Inc.), and in the international Dota 2 tournament The International 2017, the prize fund is more than $24 million.

The specifics of the eSports business is related to the audience. If you are building an esports organization, then accountants and lawyers can be taken from anywhere, but SMM specialists and PR people must be in the know and be able to work with the younger generation.

Who in Russia invests in eSports

M19 (Russia)

M19 team history

2001 (creation of a team, debut in international tournaments)

First World Championship computer games WCG 2001

At the beginning of 2001, a Counter-Strike team called M19 was formed on the basis of the club. Aleksey Kozlovsky, known under the nickname "NooK", who previously played for the Millenium (MLM) team, becomes the leader in the game, Vitaly Pochinkin ("MadFan", who previously played for SoBr) becomes the captain. The team also includes Vyacheslav Khan ("Rider"), Yuri Terentiev ("Alarik") and Alexander Gribov ("KaLagRib")

The first international tournament for the M19 is the 2001 European Championship held in London (ELSA CPL London). In July 2001, the team won a qualifying tournament in Russia, confidently beating rivals from the c58 club in the final, and for the first time in the history of Russian cybersport received the right to participate in an international Counter-Strike tournament. In London, M19 make it out of the group, but in the 1/8 finals they lose to the Finnish All-Stars team. Nevertheless, the team is gaining the necessary experience of international meetings and continues intensive training.

In October 2001, M19s are eligible to compete in the first World Cyber ​​Games. In the finals of the qualifying tournament, M19 won a dry victory over the Moscow ForZe team - 7:0, and won the main prize - a trip to the finals in Seoul and $11,000 in prize money.

In the final part of the tournament, the M19 team representing Russia falls into the same group with the best teams from Finland, USA, Malaysia, Great Britain, Holland and South Africa. Losing in starting match to the eventual group winner (and bronze medalist of the tournament) the Finnish All-Stars team, then M19 win four victories in a row. Despite a forfeit defeat in the match against the South African xTc, the Russians from M19 are gaining an equal number of points with the teams of the USA and Malaysia, and after winning the replay they leave the group from the second place.

After the group stage, the teams compete in the Double Elimination system (up to two defeats). M19 first lose to the Australian team Synergy, and in the lower bracket they lose to the Spaniards from CTF and are eliminated from the tournament. As a result, the Canadian team [:LnD:] becomes the winner of the first Counter-Strike World Championship.

After returning from Seoul, the leaders of M19 MadFan and Nook note the mediocre level of organization of the Counter-Strike tournament, and also recognize the results of the team's performance as unsatisfactory.

2002 (leadership in Russia, victory at WCG 2002)

In February 2002, at the initiative of the M19 captain, Alarik left the team; his place is taken by coMAR player known in Moscow and St. Petersburg, a former classmate of Alexander Gribov (KaLagRib). With the updated roster, M19 beat Muscovites from ForZe and get the right to participate in the Euro Cup 5 Counter-Strike online tournament. AT group tournament the team performs extremely poorly, winning only one game out of six and failing to qualify from the group. Already after the second match, lost to the Finnish team ewok, the captain of M19 in his column accused the opponents of cheating. The fact of violation of the rules was not confirmed, and the Finns eventually took second place, losing in the final to the German team mTw.

Another international tournament in which the M19 team takes part is PG Challenge 2002, a LAN championship in the capital of the Czech Republic - Prague, held in July 2002. The prize fund of the tournament is $15,000, while the winner of the Counter-Strike tournament must receive the largest prize - $4,000. As a result, M19 took the fourth place, winning only $500.

In September 2002, M19 confidently won a ticket to the WCG 2002 World Championship for the second time in a row, confirming the status of the strongest Russian team. In the finals of the qualifying tournament, the St. Petersburg team Arctica*Queen was beaten, the winner gets $13,000. At this point, Anton Kapitanov (“Rado”) became the fifth member of M19, replacing the not very confident coMAR.

The WCG 2002 final takes place in the South Korean city of Daejeon from October 28 to November 3, 2002. In the group stage, M19 will face the teams of Japan, Holland, India and Canada in succession. The first three matches of M19 win confidently, and the last meeting with the Canadian team nerve ends in a draw.
After leaving the group, the tournament continues according to the Double Elimination system (up to two defeats). As in the group stage, M19 won the first three matches against the teams of Portugal, Belgium and Great Britain, and in the final of the upper bracket they again met with the Canadians from nerve. This time, the Russians are playing better than in the group stage, and beat the opponent with a score of 17:7 on the de_nuke map, having received a ticket to the superfinal. The Canadian team beats German champions mousesports in the losers final and also advances to the super final.

The superfinal between M19 and nerve takes place on the de_dust2 map. This was the third meeting of the teams in the tournament. To win the world championship, nerve needed to win on two maps in a row (de_prodigy could have become the second map), while M19 needed only one won map. The first half of the meeting ends with the victory of the counter-terrorists nerve - 4: 8. However, the second half is confidently won by M19 - 9: 1, having won the overall score with a score of 13: 9 and won the championship. The prize for the first place was $40,000.

The victory at WCG 2002 remains the highest achievement to this day Russian teams on the game Counter-Strike. Of the teams in the post-Soviet space, only the Ukrainian team repeated and even surpassed the success of the M19 Natus Vincere, which won three IEM, ESWC and WCG world championships in 2010.

Back in September 2002, immediately after the victory in qualifying tournament at the WCG, M19 gets the right to participate in Euro Cup VI. In the finals of the Russian qualification, ForZe Muscovites were beaten. However, as in the fifth season of the Euro Cup, M19 perform poorly and do not even advance from the group. The first LAN tournament for M19 in the rank of world champions is the MindTrek LAN held in Helsinki. M19 are being prepared for three days and ended up in fourth place.

2003 (defeats in all significant tournaments)

The third consecutive European Cup - Euro Cup VII - ends for M19 with another failure: the team loses all matches in the group stage. According to the captain, the reason for this was outdated computers and low Internet connection speed. In the course of the tournament, in April 2003, Rado and Rider left the team, and their places were taken by the players of the St. Petersburg team Arctica*Queen Hercules and Dumok. Rado leaves for Yekaterinburg and creates a team, and Rider moves to Arctica*Queen.

The performance of the updated M19s at the Russian qualifiers for the World Championship WCG RU Preliminaries 2003 ends with a sensation with a minus sign. The team loses the first two games to the little-known teams Flash.LSD and Unitedteam and is one of the first to leave the tournament.

A month after the inglorious performance in the qualifying tournament, the team announces its return to the "golden" roster (Nook, KALbI4, Rado, MadFan and Rider) and announces the start of preparations for the international tournaments CPL Denmark and CyberXGaming. Unfortunately for the Russian fans, in Copenhagen the M19s don't make it out of the group. As for CyberXGaming, a CS tournament with an unprecedented prize fund$200,000 was sensationally cancelled.

In general, 2003 turns out to be a disastrous year for the M19. At the end of the year, the Virtus.pro team is created, which first takes 3rd place (the best among Russian teams) at the unofficial Flashback CIS championship Open Cup 2003, and then wins the representative tournament VIKA WEB CS Open Cup. It was Virtus.pro who had to take the position of M19 as the leader of the Russian Counter-Strike and hold it for several years.

2004 (dominance of Virtus.pro, line-up change, participation in WCG 2004)

In February, M19 takes second place (after Virtus.pro) at the Arbalet CIS Cup tournament, which brought together a large number of teams from all over Russia, as well as Ukraine, Belarus, Latvia, Moldova and Kazakhstan. In addition, M19 is forced to refuse to take part in the prestigious ASUS Winter Cup 2004 tournament, as it takes place at the same time as the qualification for ESWC Russia 2004 in St. Petersburg, which causes dissatisfaction among the team members. It also fails to perform successfully in ESWC Russia 2004, the victory went to the Virtus.pro team.

From February to May, M19 play in the European online league Counter-Strike Challenge. Compared to previous online tournaments, this one ended more successfully for M19: the team reached the semi-finals, losing to the future champion - the Finnish team z0lad. A few months after the victory, the Finnish team was disqualified by ClanBase tournament organizers for using cheats.

In May, the captain Vitaly Pochinkin (“MadFan”) leaves the team to focus on his studies and personal life. He was replaced for some time by Maharram Akhmedov ("mAger"), who previously played for lesser-known clans, but he also leaves M19 in connection with preparing for the entrance exams to the institute. In June Evgeniy Gapchenko (“400kg”) takes his place. In the updated line-up, the team begins preparations for the Russian qualifiers for the World Cup. WCG RU Preliminaries 2004, held in July, ends with the victory of M19, who get the right to play in the final, as well as $14,400 in prize money. Virtus.pro do not take part in the qualifying tournament, as the team is playing at ESWC 2004 at that time.

A month after winning the qualifying tournament, Evgeny Gapchenko (400kg) is denied a visa to travel to the United States, which makes it impossible for him to participate in the final tournament. Instead, Vitaly Pochinkin (“MadFan”) returns to the team for the duration of the final games, which significantly reduces the chances of a successful performance.

At the WCG 2004 Grand Final M19 gets into a group with the Canadian team TeamEG and the Turkish teamquash. The Russians play the first game with the Canadians in a draw (12:12), but due to the claims of one of the parties, a replay of the second half is scheduled. As a result, M19 lose 11:13. However, after the victory of the Turks over the Canadians, the victory in last game against teamquash would take M19 out of the group. Unfortunately, the Russians also lose the second game (5:13) and stop participating in the World Cup.

In the fall, M19 takes part in the ESL CounterStrike Champions League online league, where it plays in the same group with Virtus.pro, but does not advance from the group to the LAN finals.

In November, Vyacheslav Khan ("Rid3r") and Anton Kapitanov ("Rado") leave the team, who, like earlier Vitaly Pochinkin ("MadFan"), decide to concentrate on study and work. Their places are taken by Kirill Ilyashovich (“CaS”), who previously played for M19, as well as who previously played for mega Toyotic and ended up in the reserve x0ma. The first serious tournament for the updated M19 roster is ASUS Autumn Cup 2004, where the team takes second place, once again losing in the final to Virtus.pro.

2004 is a more successful year for the team than the previous one, as it comes to victory in the Russian qualifiers for the WCG. In the remaining tournaments held in Russia, the team regularly falls behind Virtus.pro, who not only win more tournaments, but also occupy more high places in the ranking the best players Russia. In international tournaments, the team does not achieve any noticeable success.

2005 (CPL Turkey, team breakup)

In January, a press release unexpectedly appears on the SK Gaming website, which talks about changes in the management and team roster. Fidel Lang (“Yesi”) is appointed manager of the Counter-Strike division, while Vladimir Khvostov, the manager of the M19 club, remains the head of the project. The updated team roster is as follows: Nook, Gribov (better known as KALbI4), malish (aka CaS), 400kg, Medic.

The first tournament for the updated M19 is the CPL Turkey, held in February 2005. The team barely advances from the group, losing to the Turkish Team quash (5:16), and then winning against their compatriots from the Rusher Team (16:11). More serious opponents are waiting for the M19 playoffs: the Poles TitaNs (16:14) were beaten in the quarterfinals, and the Swedish team ICSU was beaten in the semifinals. In the final, the Russians will have to fight with the best Norwegian team Catch Gamer, who knocked out the eternal rivals of M19 - Virtus.pro from the tournament. M19 lose with a score of 16:13 and take second place, but this performance becomes one of the best in the years of the team's existence. Even though the prize money was never paid out, M19 players call this tournament one of the highlights of their careers.

At the end of February, M19 perform in the ASUS Winter 2005 tournament with the best teams CIS. After leaving the group from the first place, the Russians lose to the Ukrainians from NT-C and Belarusians from tarantul and end their performance at the tournament. In early March, the team takes part in the next EuroCup XI, but does not overcome the first group stage, winning only two games out of four. This online tournament is the last for the Russian Counter-Strike legend.

On March 28, 2005, a statement appeared on the website of the M19 club:
The M19 club is disbanding the CS-team:
NooK, KalbI4, Cas, 400 kg, Medic

And he begins recruiting a new team to represent the club at official competitions.

According to some members of the team, financial difficulties are the reason for the breakup. According to rumors, the team was not paid a salary, so the leaders of M19 NooK and 400kg moved to another St. Petersburg team x4team. In addition, the team parted ways with Medic a few weeks earlier. The official reason for the dissolution of the team was never made public.

Compound

Outstanding Players

During the entire existence of the team, only Russian players played in it. In total, the team consisted of at least 15 people, but six achieved the greatest success, including victories at WCG Russia and the WCG Grand Final: Nook, MadFan, KALbI4, Rider, Rado, 400kg. Two players - Nook and KALbI4 - played for M19 from its inception until the team's breakup.

Alexey Kozlovsky / "Nook"(b. 06/05/1983, St. Petersburg) - one of the founders and game leader of the team that played in all M19 squads. Tactician, good shooter. After leaving M19, he played for x4team along with other former partners. In 2007, he graduated from his studies and became interested in poker.

Vitaly Pochinkin / MadFan(born June 28, 1981, St. Petersburg) - one of the founders and captain of the team. He led his own column on the eSports site cyberfight.ru. After leaving the team, he quit esports and opened an Internet cafe in St. Petersburg.

Alexander Gribov / «KALbI4»(also Kalych, Kalagrib, Gribov) (born 10/07/1984, St. Petersburg) - one of the founders of the team, who played in all M19 squads. Sniper, a good shooter of all types of weapons. After the breakup of the team, he played for Mighty44 (among his achievements - victory in ASUS Spring 2005 right after leaving M19, former partners from x4team were beaten in the final), x4team, Spb.Islanders, Virtus.pro (top eight at ESWC 2007), various mixes . In 2008, he ends his playing career, works as a postman in Helsinki in the summer, and leaves for Bali in the fall, where he still lives. She is a surfer and works as a tour guide. In 2010, he starred in Valeria's video for the song "Droplet".

Vyacheslav Khan / «Rider»(St. Petersburg) - one of the founders of the team, who, nevertheless, usually remained in the shadow of partners. As in life, in the game he could well act independently, unexpectedly for an opponent.

Anton Kapitanov / «Rado»(b. 20.09.1983, St. Petersburg) - joined M19 before the start of the qualifiers for WCG 2002. One of the best Russian players, gained fame thanks to ingenious finds. In 2003, he left for Yekaterinburg and created a team with which he won the Permian Period tournament, and also took second place in the ESWC qualifiers (beating M19). Then he still returns to M19. He admitted that the breakup of the team was primarily due to financial reasons. Played for x4team, ClickMouse, from 2006 to 2007. was a coach of Spb.Islanders. Worked in a construction and investment company.

Evgeny Gapchenko / "400kg"(b. 1981, Chelyabinsk) - one of the leading players in the team, who replaced MadFan. Before M19, he performed in Chelyabinsk SC, Moscow A-Line and m5team, Yekaterinburg. After the collapse of M19, he moved to x4team, then to TRAP, where he took second place at the NPKL 2006. As a result, he returned to Chelyabinsk, played for the local Lacerta team and ended his career in 2007, after which he took up web development.

Rating 3.88 /5 - 8 votes

Literally in 2001, a line-up was formed in the Counter-Strike club, which took the modest name M19. Leadership position occupied by Lesha Kozlovsky, who became more famous under the pseudonym “NooK”, the captain of this association is Vitalik Pochinkin, Vyacheslav Khan, Sasha Gribov and Yura Terentyev fought side by side with the guys. For the first time, the squad scored at the European Championship, which took place in 2001, directly in England, after a while the guys managed to win the All-Russian tournament, surpassing strong opponents from club c58. For the first time in the history of local eSports, the right to participate in the tournament was obtained international class by Counter-Strike. Unfortunately, in London they had to leave the group, as at first the guys could not resist the Finnish rivals from the All-Stars. But at the same time, they gained worthy experience of international competitions and began to train even more actively.

At the end of March 2005, official portal The M19 club received a message that the current roster is disbanding, new players will be recruited to represent the team in official competitions. During the development of the team, there were exclusively representatives of Russia in it. In total, there were about 15 people in M19, although the main tasks were performed by natural leaders, including Nook, his friend MadFan, also KALbI4, Rider, the brilliant Rado, plus 400kg.

Line-up

Nook- this is Lesha Kozlovsky, born in St. Petersburg in 1983, he is an excellent shooter, except virtual game also excelled in poker.

madfan- Vitalik Pochinkin, born in 1981, also from St. Petersburg, led the M19 team, and also wrote a personal column on the eSports resource. As soon as I finished with the game, I independently opened a virtual cafe in my hometown.

KALbI4- Sasha Gribov, born in the northern capital of the Russian Federation in 1984, acted as a sniper in the team, owned almost all types of weapons. He fought for different squads throughout his career, after a while he abandoned the virtual world, and as a result he went to live in Bali.

rider- Vyacheslav Khan, originally from St. Petersburg, founded this team, but always stood behind the partners. His peculiarity was that all the actions of the guy were extraordinary.

Rado- Anton Kapitanov, Russian, born in 1983, became part of the M19 team right before the qualifying sessions for WCG 2002. He is considered one of the leading players in the Russian Federation, because he acts cunningly and thoughtfully

400kg- Zhenya Gapchenko, from Chelyabinsk, born in 1981, is really the leading player in the squad. At the end of his playing career, he returned to his hometown, and is now engaged in web development.

Screenshot

Legendary Build Features

• Russian nickname and Russian chat built into the assembly from M19.
• Configs from professional players: Nook, Madfan, Rider , 400kg, Kalbl4, Rado are already built into the game.
• High-quality protection against malicious commands sent by the KS 1.6 server.
• Optimization of the game assembly was carried out in full.
• Redesigned models of players and weapons for the M19 clan.
• The absence of unnecessary models, weapons, sprites, etc., all standard players helped to develop.
• Quick assembly installation with a choice of two languages ​​ENG and RUS.

April 19 movement(Spanish Movimiento 19 de Abril) better known as M-19- Colombian guerrilla movement (1970-80s), the main ideology of which, as an insurgent anti-imperialist organization, was the establishment of social changes in the oligarchic and mired in corruption.

Unlike other Colombian guerrilla groups, M-19 was not based on radical leftist communist principles, but rather on democratic (more precisely, democratic socialist) principles. Their main goal was to create a true democracy in the country.

In the mid 80s. M-19 was the second largest guerrilla movement after (FARC-EP). The "April 19 Movement" effectively ceased to exist in 1990, signing an agreement with the Colombian government led by the president on a complete ceasefire and reintegration into legitimate political activity and peaceful life.

Creation

The name of the group comes from the date of the 1970 presidential elections in Colombia. Then the conservative candidate Misael Pastrana Borrero(Spanish: Misael Eduardo Pastrana Borrero) narrowly defeated the popular candidate from the People's National Alliance Movement (ANAPO; orig. Alianza Nacional Popular, ANAPO) - General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla(Spanish: Gustavo Rojas Pinilla) (41.2% vs. 39.6%).

Among the founders of M-19 were:

• Jaime Bateman Cayon
• Alvaro Fayad
• Ivan Marino Ospina
• Jose Gregorio Lozano
• Carlos Pizarro Leongomez
• Luis Otero Cifuentes
• Carlos Toledo Plata
• Gustavo Petro
• Israel Santamaria
• Andres Almarales
• Evert Bustamante Garcia
• Ivan Jaramillo
• Alfonso Jacquin
• etc.

All of them were very literate and educated people (financiers, lawyers, etc.), many of them, like other members of the movement, later became respected politicians (most of them are now members of the Alternative Democratic Pole political party).

Over time, the anti-oligarchic movement adopted the ideas of scientific socialism, based on which the working class is the greatest force of the revolution. In addition, they understood the importance of creating an alliance with the peasants, who also suffered from the same social problems.

Advertising campaign

This is genius…

Bolivar's sword

Advertising activity reached its peak phase with a very significant and extremely high-profile event. On January 17, 1974, a group of rebels organized a robbery of the National Museum in the center of the capital. The only stolen museum piece was the battle sword of himself (National hero, liberator of Colombia and a number of countries in South America from the Spanish colonial oppression - ed.). In place of the sword, the robbers left a note in which it was written: "Bolivar, your sword returns to battle". Thus, the M-19s officially announced themselves and their upcoming armed struggle to the Colombian government.

1976-1980

In February 1976, members of the movement kidnapped the president of the Confederation of Workers of Colombia (CTC) - Jose Raquel Mercado, who was accused of betraying the trade union, of which he was the leader. On April 19, 1976, Mercado was executed by dumping his corpse on a busy road junction in Bogotá. The M-19s have openly claimed responsibility for this crime.

Between 1976 and 1978 members of the April 19 Movement abducted over 400 more victims. Among them were officials, journalists, relatives of high-ranking officials, and so on.

In 1978, the group took a significant step forward in their future military actions when several members of the movement dug an 80-meter tunnel to the main military base of Bogota, from where they stole more than 5,000 weapons and a huge amount of ammunition.

This weapon will be used 2 years later. On February 27, 1980, 16 members of M-19 stormed the Embassy of the Dominican Republic in Bogota, where the solemn celebration of the Independence Day of that country was taking place that day. Among the hostages were diplomatic representatives from several countries, including the US ambassador. Diego Askencio. In total, 57 people were taken hostage. The attack on the embassy was prompted by the recent capture of one of the founders of M-19, Jaime Bateman. The capture of the embassy lasted 61 days. The guerrillas agreed to release the hostages in exchange for safe passage to Cuba and the release of 320 political prisoners, among whom were M-19 members.

War on drug cartels

It is natural to ask where the M-19 received funding from. Especially popular among the partisans were the kidnappings of relatives of local drug dealers, for which the rebels received substantial ransoms. These funds were used to support the activities of the movement. The rebels were not afraid to encroach on even the most powerful drug dealers of that time - Cartel Medellin led by the legendary .

So, in 1980, M-19 tried to kidnap a high-ranking member, but he managed to escape from the raiders. And in December 1981, the sister of the “Ochoa clan” was abducted (one of the founders of the cartel are brothers, and Ochoa Vasquez - ed.), 26-year-old Marta Nieves, whose abduction was organized by a partisan group, whose leaders demanded from the Ochoa brothers $12 million for her release.

In response, the Ochoa called an emergency meeting with 223 local drug dealers and large landowners. At this meeting, the question of creating an organization was raised, the purpose of which was to counter the antics of partisans and other sabotage groups carrying out the abduction of their close associates. Thus, a paramilitary organization called " Death to the kidnappers» (MAS, Muerte a Secuestradores).

According to some reports, each member of the newly formed organization contributed 2 million pesos and 10 the best people. Thus, the MAS own army immediately began to have a cash fund of 446 million pesos and 2230 armed fighters. After 92 days, after a series of brutal reprisals against the partisans and their loved ones, Martha Nieves was released.

Despite government persecution and wars with drug cartels, M-19s continued to grow rapidly. This was partly due to support from foreign guerrilla groups. Mainly due to the support of similar guerrilla movements Montoneros(Argentina) and Tupamara(Uruguay).

"Crystal" truce

In early 1983, Jaime Bateman proposed that the government hold a dialogue that would resolve the military conflict. However, on April 28 of the same year, Bateman died in a plane crash and negotiations were suspended.

They were relaunched in 1984. The then President of Colombia Belisario Betancourt(Spanish: Belisario Betancur Cuartas) carried out a broad amnesty for the guerrilla group and raised the issue of a ceasefire and demobilization of the guerrilla group. It was Betancourt who first suggested that M-19 reorganize into a political party. Despite constant sabotage on both sides, in the same year a new party appeared on the political field - Democratic Alliance M-19(AD-M19), which consisted of certain factions of the movement. The other part of the partisans, who did not agree with the truce, also continued their insurgent activities.

By mid-1985, the fragile truce was broken and the leader of the young party, Alvaro Fayyad, announced that the political wing was returning to the fray. In the same year, the group became the protagonist of the most infamous episode of its existence and one of the main episodes of the Colombian Civil War.

Assault on the Palace of Justice

On November 6, 1985, members of the M-19 took over the Palace of Justice in Bogotá. This high-profile event went down in history as Assault on the Palace of Justice(Spanish: Toma del Palacio de Justicia). The goal of the guerrillas was to force the judges to convict President Belazario Betancur for violating the terms reached in the peace deal.

It was one of the largest and most daring events organized by the Colombian rebels in all 52 years of bloody war. It all happened in the capital's courthouse, which was taken over by 35 heavily armed M-19 members who suddenly drove up to the palace and fired on the guards. Having penetrated inside, they organized a circular defense, occupying the entire perimeter of the building. They took 300 people hostage, incl. all supreme judges of Colombia. The government's reaction was lightning fast. Half an hour later, the entire area was cordoned off by the police, two hundred military and special forces soldiers.

Military helicopters circled in the air, and battle tanks surrounded the building. The assault has begun...

The siege lasted over 28 hours. The rebels, realizing that the end is near, began to burn all archival court documents. The palace was completely burned down, turning into a huge ashes. As a result of the assault, 33 partisans, 11 government soldiers, 13 judges and 58 civilians were killed.

After 2 years, trials began in the case of the "capture of the palace of justice", during which many documents and evidence surfaced, indicating that one of the customers of this event was Pablo Escobar himself, the purpose of which was to destroy some court papers incriminating the question of his extradition to the USA. It is alleged that the drug lord paid the guerrillas more than $1 million to seize the courthouse and destroy the documents under the pretext of personal beliefs. This is hardly seen as true, because the Medellin cartel and M-19 were sworn enemies. However, this version is still unofficially one of the main reasons for the seizure of the building.

Surrender of weapons

In 1989, the M-19s began another round of peace talks with the government led by President Caesar Gaviria. It was about the demobilization of the M-19 as an armed guerrilla group and its full transition into legitimate political activity.

The leader of the group, Carlos Pizarro, signed the historic peace treaty on March 9, 1990. The rebels laid down their arms and agreed to stop all military operations. Most of the members of the group joined the revived political party AD-M19.

Just 7 weeks later, Pizarro, who was the presidential candidate of his own party, was shot to death.

In the early 2000s The AD-M19 disappeared from the political arena, ending a guerrilla political party that had been around for about 30 years.

However, some of the group's former members now play important political roles in the country. So, for example, the former ideologist M-19 Gustavo Petro(Spanish: Gustavo Petro) was one of the top presidential candidates in the 2018 elections, winning 42% of the popular vote and losing the presidential race to a right-wing candidate