Venezuela

by Leonard V. Dalton

On June 24, 1821, the Spanish leader, La Torre, occupied the plain of Carabobo with 5,000 men (six columns of infantry and three of cavalry). The patriot army, in order to reach them, had to follow a narrow mountain path over the Alto de Buenavista, under the fire of the royalists, and Páez was dispatched on a flanking movement to the right. Meanwhile Bolivar, having descended this exposed path, had to defile a second time to cross a small stream between the two hills. The enemy descended to dispute his passage, which was effected under cover of a hot fire from the infantry on both sides. The Apure battalion crossed first and were nearly driven back, but the British crossed just in time to allow them to re-form, while the Tiradores speedily came over to their assistance, the hollow square formed by our countrymen having held the ground at the critical moment of the day. By this time the cavalry were across and the field was won, for the Spanish troops were unable to withstand the attack of the llaneros, once these were in their natural element in the open plains. La Torre and Morales made good their escape, owing to the gallant stand made by the first Valencey battalion, while of the patriots, Bolivar wrote that only 200 were killed or wounded. La Torre fled to Puerto Cabello, and Bolivar marched on to Carácas.

Casual fighting continued for two years more, but the power of Spain was finally broken at Carabobo, and the last royalist adherents capitulated in Puerto Cabello on October 8, 1823.

In the meantime the Constitution of Great Colombia had been adopted by the Congress of Cúcuta in August, 1821, but before long Venezuela found her position in the Union far from satisfactory. The discontent found voice in the municipality of Valencia in 1826, Páez being one of the leaders of the separatists. Bolivar arrived in Puerto Cabello from the west in 1827, having previously written to Páez, whose loyalty to his old chief made him bow to his opinion. This, however, would not suffice to make up for the bad state of agricultural industries and of the country generally, and the murmurings broke out afresh. In 1828 Bolivar was given dictatorial power by the Congress of Colombia, while on the other hand plots were formed by the malcontents to assassinate him. In the following year, during Colombia’s squabbles with Peru, Carácas and Valencia repudiated Bolivar, and on January 13, 1830, Páez declared Venezuela independent of Colombia.

The last Colombian Congress met in the “conference of Cúcuta,” and Bolivar finally retired from power on March 1st. Valencia even demanded his expulsion. The sentimental attempt, carried through in spite of practical opposition, to form so large a single State of three groups of settlements, separated by wide areas without roads or other means of communication, seems but another instance of the frequent inability of a gallant soldier to play a worthy part in the politics of the land he has served. It was, nevertheless, a melancholy period of the history of Venezuela when the liberator of half of South America, as well as of his own land, was left to retire broken-hearted to Santa Marta in New Granada, where he died of phthisis on December 17, 1830, and was buried in the little church of the town.

But though Bolivar was unhonoured in his death, the main object to which he had devoted his life was attained, and, as we shall see, after twelve years his services were duly recognised by the country and town which gave him birth. The next period of Venezuelan history lasts to 1864, during which the centralist Constitution was in force, to be changed afterwards to the federal type which exists to-day.

One of his generals, Monágas, still remained loyal to Bolivar’s views, and for some years continued his efforts to persuade the powers that were in Venezuela to join themselves again with Colombia. In April, 1831, however, the new Congress assembled and formally elected General José Antonio Páez as President of the republic; an embassy was dispatched to Bogotá, and Carácas was declared the capital on May 25th. Early in the following year their independence was formally recognised by Colombia, and measures were taken to provide for the efficient administration of the country, which was divided into three districts, the Oriente, Centro, and Occidente, the supreme courts of each being at Cumaná, Valencia, and Maracaibo respectively.

The third Venezuelan Congress met in January, 1833, and proceeded to incorporate the wandering soldiers of the revolution into a regular army, and to arrange the division of the public debt and other agreements with Colombia and Ecuador.

At the end of 1834 there were four candidates for the presidency, of whom Doctor José Maria Vargas was elected in 1835; a good omen for the country, inasmuch as Vargas was a scholar, not a soldier, and his claim to the confidence of his country rested on more solid grounds than those of his military opponents. He was only prevailed upon with difficulty to stand, or to act when elected, but displayed a praiseworthy loftiness of motive while in office. Mariño, however, showed his shallow and selfish nature once more in raising discontent amongst those who considered that might should triumph over right rather than the reverse; Vargas resigned early in 1836, and for the rest of this presidential term the vice-president carried out the duties of the office.

In 1839 Páez was again elected President, and in that year did much to increase the prosperity of the country and to raise its position in South America. The cart-road from La Guaira to Carácas was opened, and another commenced between Puerto Cabello and Valencia. The liberty of the press was so far increased that A. L. Guzman was able to start the journal El Venezolano in opposition to the existing Government, and in support of the Federal ideal of the newly formed Liberal party, the Centralists being known as the Oligarca. In the following year a colonisation scheme was put forward, and a national college for girls opened, while an attempt was made to found a national bank in 1841. This year also saw authority given to the executive to take measures for the education and civilisation of the aborigines, and to put in hand the standard works on the geography and history of Venezuela by Codazzi and Baralt.

In 1842, the last year of Páez’s second presidency, the gradually increasing appreciation of Bolivar’s services to his country culminated on April 30th in a decree of public honours to the “Libertador,” as he was now styled, and burial in state in Carácas. The Venezuelan boats Constitucion and Carácas, H.M.S. Albatross, the Dutch warship La Venus, and the French frigate Circe, accordingly left La Guaira, bearing a deputation of influential men, including Vargas, and reached Santa Marta on November 16th. The people of Nueva Granada recognised willingly the prior claims of Carácas, as Bolivar’s birthplace, and his body was borne back on the Constitucion. A permanent triumphal arch had been erected in his honour at the foot of El Calvario, and the remains were laid to rest in the chapel of the Holy Trinity in Carácas Cathedral, being transferred later to the Pantheon.