[NYTr] Chavez Is Right: Gen.Santander at root of political intolerance in Colombia

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Progreso Weekly - Nov 29, 2007
http://progreso-weekly.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=248&Itemid=1

Chávez is right

Gen. Santander is at the root of political intolerance in Colombia

By Hernando Calvo Ospina

On Nov. 20, in an unexpected move, Colombian President Álvaro Uribe
withdrew the authorization to his Venezuelan counterpart, Hugo Chávez,
to continue mediating for a humanitarian accord between the Colombian
government and the FARC guerrillas (Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia) that might allow the release of detainees and prisoners of
war.

World consternation was immediate, particularly from the French
government, which identified Chávez as "the best chance" to achieve
that objective. The alternative offered by the government in Bogotá is
the same that has provided no solution in five years: a military
approach. 

Feeling scorned and "betrayed", Chávez on Nov. 25 decided to freeze
relations with Colombia. Speaking publicly, the Venezuelan president
compared Uribe and his government with Gen. Francisco de Paula
Santander, one of the first leaders of Colombia after that country's
independence from Spain. "They are [like] Santander, who ordered the
assassination of Bolívar," Chávez said. Uribe, without naming Chávez,
said that the Venezuelan president was manipulating history because
Santander "gave us the example of adherence to the law."

By permission of the Spanish publishers Foca-Investigación and the
Venezuelan publishing foundation El Perro y la Rana, we publish this
excerpt from the soon-to-be-published book "History of State Terrorism
in Colombia," by Hernando Calvo Ospina, a Colombian journalist and
writer who lives in France.

It is a brief demonstration that President Chávez is absolutely right.
And that Uribe defends those who resemble Uribe.

The roots of intolerance

The official history says Francisco de Paula Santander was Colombia's
"man of laws." What history doesn't say is that he could bear the title
of first major example of betrayal and political intransigence among
the Colombian elite. 

Santander viewed Simón Bolívar's assassination as the only possibility
of dismembering the Grand Colombia, formed by Venezuela, Ecuador and
Colombia. His hunger for power and the nascent homegrown oligarchy that
supported him led him to plan several attempts on the Liberator's life.

The main one occurred Sept. 25, 1828, in Bogotá. Santander's minions
raided the Presidential Palace, murdering some of the guards and
subduing the rest. It was midnight. Believing themselves safe, they
began to shout insults as they ran to Bolívar's bedroom.

One of the conspirators said: "A beautiful lady holding a sword barred
our path and, with an admirable presence of mind and in very courteous
tones, asked what did we want."

The "lady," who had been sleeping with the infirm Liberator, had
awakened him and helped him to dress so he could escape through a
window. She then faced down the assassins, wearing only a sleeping
gown. The men took away her sword and pushed her to the ground; one of
them kicked her on the head.

The following day, when news of the raid spread, the people took to the
streets, hailing Bolívar and demanding the execution of Santander and
the others. The Liberator's wish was that the culprits be pardoned, but
a tribunal handed down the sentences. Santander was sentenced to death,
but Bolívar commuted the sentence and sent Santander into exile. "My
generosity defends him," Bolívar said. 

In early 1830, the French envoy in Bogotá visited the Liberator. Seeing
the expression of surprise on the diplomat's face, Bolívar confided
that his illness and extreme loss of weight, "with my legs swimming in
my broad flannel trousers" were caused by the suffering inflicted by
his "compatriots who could not stab me to death and now try to
assassinate me morally with their ingratitude and slander. After I'm
gone, those demagogues will devour each other, like wolves, and the
building that I constructed with superhuman efforts will collapse."

Bolívar was only 47 years old but he looked like a 60-year-old man.
Although short of stature, he had been indomitable for more than a
quarter century, fighting on horseback to free five nations, under the
ideals of Latin American unity. Only the political and economic
interests of the elite sent him on the path of collapse. [...]

The "lady" mentioned by one of the plotters was named Manuela Sáenz.
Official history books, when they name her, describe her simply as
Bolívar's lover. When one reads some of the "educational" manuals, one
is left with the sensation that she was "a devourer" of men. A whore.

Born in Quito, Manuelita began to confront "society" at the age of 12,
when she took to the streets with the people in her hometown who
demanded emancipation from Spain in 1809. At an early age, she married
a wealthy English trader. They traveled to Lima, where she spent some
time attending conspiratorial political meetings, something very
unusual among women at the time. In 1821, she participated in the
uprising and received the highest award given to patriots: Lady of the
Order of the Sun.

The following year, she returned to Ecuador and was present on the day
that Bolívar entered the capital in triumph, after the Battle of
Pichincha. They met at a gala and Manuelita triggered a new "social"
scandal: she decided to abandon her husband and join the Liberator.

In October 1823, at the request of the top officers, she was brought
into Bolívar's general staff. Another scandal: a woman in uniform,
bearing the rank of colonel. A unique instance in the quest for
liberation. At the Battle of Ayacucho in 1824, when Spain was about to
be expelled from South America, Manuelita fought shoulder to shoulder
with the brave lancers. From that time on, she was referred to by the
troops as "the Liberatress."

In Colombia, she had to deal with the hard core of the conspirators
against Bolívar, who contemptuously called "the Manuela woman." The
assassination attempt against the Liberator on Sept. 25 was the third
one she had saved him from. The anger against her was shown in the
slander hurled at her, particularly attacks on her dignity.

When a very ill Bolívar resigned the presidency and left to meet death,
the attacks against Manuelita took impetus. Posters insulting her
appeared in many places in Bogotá. She counterattacked, distributing a
leaflet that exposed the inefficacy of the leaders and revealed their
secrets. Her action was branded as "provocative and seditious" and she
was sent to jail for several days, a treatment never before meted to a
woman, particularly a woman of her stature. 

After Bolívar's death, Santander returned to Colombia like a hero. He
regained all his posts and was even named president. On Jan. 1, 1834,
he signed a decree that sent Manuelita into exile. She left for Jamaica
and from there went to Ecuador, but the government of her native
country refused her entry.

The "Liberatress of the Andes" had no choice but to seek refuge in a
town on the Peruvian coast, where she made a living as a tobacconist.
She died in poverty, of diphtheria, in 1856.(*)

(*) On May 24, 2007, President Rafael Correa of Ecuador promoted her
posthumously to General of the Republic.