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

By
Hernando Calvo Ospina                                                       Read Spanish Version

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 not 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.