Pabón lived in exile in Cuba, after the siege, remaining a member of the M-19. He returned to Colombia in 1984, and participated in the siege of the city of Yumbo. He returned to civilian life after M-19 signed a peace treaty with the Colombian government in March 1990.
Political career
Mayor of Yumbo
In 1997, Pabón successfully ran for Mayor of the Municipality of Yumbo as a M-19 candidate for the 1998-2000 period. His first concern as Mayor was to dissipate the public sector strike that had taken place under the administration of the previous mayor Carlos Alberto Moreno Herrera. In 2000, Rosemberg resigned as Mayor of Yumbo to stand for as a candidate in the nearby elections for Mayor of Santiago de Cali. He temporarily steeped down leaving Abraham Rubio Quiroga as interim Mayor of Yumbo before the next elections, and was finally replaced by Alba Leticia Chávez Jiménez. His run for Mayor of Cali, however, proved unsuccessful, losing to John Maro Rodríguez Flórez. His administration was criticized for misuse of the public coffers, leaving a COP$5,200 million of deficit and impeding the pay of thousands of public sector employees.
Senator
In 2002, Pabón ran for the Senate of Colombia as third in line from the Alternative Way Senate list ofAntonio Navarro Wolff, another former M-19 member, however Navarro's list only managed to get enough votes for two seats. In 2004, Pabón replaced Navarro in the Senate from July 20 to November 1, an opportunity that repeated itself again from July 22 to October 22, 2003 when he replaced Gerardo Antonio Jumi Tapias. During his time as Senator, Pabón voted in favor of proposed legislation that would have legalized recognition of same-sex unions in Colombia, however the proposed law that had the backing of prominent liberal senators like Piedad Córdoba could not amount the necessary votes to pass. In 2005, Pabón left the Independent Democratic Pole, a left leaning coalition party which he himself had help found, among other reasons, Pabón was a strong supporter of the conservative leaning President Álvaro Uribe Vélez and believed that the Pole was taking "leftist radicalism of the maoist and procuban era." In 2006, Pabón once again ran for Senate this time trying to align himself more to the centre-right by joining the ranks of the political party Citizens' Convergence, this time around however proved more unsuccessful than before as Pabón was not able to get enough conservative votes and alienated his strong liberal base.
