La Estrella del Tolima, 1882-1884.
El último aliento del liberalismo radical en Neiva*
Jean Paul Ruíz Martínez[1]
Universidad Nacional de Colombia
Cristian Salamanca Arévalo[2]
Universidad del Tolima
Reception:
15/11/2015
Evaluation:
29/04/2016
Approval:
16/05/2016
Research
and Innovation article.
Resumen
En este texto se
estudia La Estrella del Tolima,
publicación radical editada en Neiva entre 1882 y 1884, en un contexto de
fragmentación del liberalismo y ascenso del sector independiente. Para tal fin,
prestamos atención a la división del Partido Liberal y la situación de su
facción radical, para luego estudiar la postura y estrategia que propusieron
los radicales desde La Estrella para
sobrevivir como fuerza política en la escena nacional y mantener el control del
gobierno del Estado Soberano del Tolima. Metodológicamente, el artículo deriva
de la compilación y análisis de la prensa decimonónica del Tolima Grande, junto con la exploración de folletería y
memorias de la región, con el fin de analizar a La Estrella en el universo editorial tolimense y de captar su
importancia para la política de la época. Con este estudio se postula que La Estrella se consolidó como la última tribuna de defensa y opinión del
radicalismo en el Tolima, por las relaciones que los radicales detrás del
periódico guardaban con el gobierno y por su permanencia política en el Estado
hasta 1884.
Palabras clave: Estrella del Tolima, liberalismo radical, liberalismo independiente, nuñismo,
Estado Soberano del Tolima, prensa.
La Estrella del Tolima Newspaper, 1882-1884. The Last Breath of Radical Liberalism in Neiva
Abstract
This study
examines La Estrella del Tolima, a
radical newspaper edited in Neiva between 1882 and 1884, in the context of the
fragmentation of liberalism and the rise of the independent sector. In order to
do this, we focus on the division of the Liberal Party and the situation of its
radical faction. Afterwards, we explore the position and strategy proposed by
the radicals, by means of La Estrella,
in order to survive as a political power in the national scene and maintain
control of the government in the Sovereign State of Tolima. Methodologically,
the article is derived from the compilation and analysis of the 19th
century press of the Tolima Grande region;
together with a study of the pamphlets and memoirs of the region, enabling an
analysis of La Estrella in the
context of the editorial universe of Tolima, which captures its importance for
the politics of the time. This study postulates that La Estrella consolidated the last tribune of radical opinion and
defense in the State of Tolima, due to the relations between the radicals who
ran the newspaper and the government, as well as their political permanence in
the state until 1884.
Key
words: Estrella del
Tolima newspaper, radical liberalism, independent liberalism, nuñismo,
Sovereign State of Tolima, the press.
La Estrella
del Tolima, 1882-1884. Le dernier souffle du libéralisme radical à
Neiva
Résumé
Dans ce texte on étudie l’Estrella del Tolima,
un journal radical publiée à Neiva entre 1882 et 1884, dans un contexte de
fragmentation du libéralisme et de montée en puissance du secteur indépendant.
Pour cela, nous analysons dans un premier temps la division du Parti Libéral et
la situation de la faction radicale. Ensuite nous étudions la stratégie
développée par les radicaux depuis l’Estrella
pour survivre en tant que force politique dans la scène nationale et pour
maintenir le contrôle de l’État Souverain du Tolima. Les sources dont nous nous
sommes servi pour écrire cet article sont la presse, les brochures et les
mémoires rédigées dans la région, ce qui permet de mettre en rapport l’Estrella avec l’univers éditorial du
Tolima et de saisir l’importance dudit journal dans la politique de l’époque.
Avec cette étude nous nous proposons de montrer que l’Estrella constitue la dernière forteresse du radicalisme dans
l’Etat du Tolima, en raison des liens que les radicaux engagés dans la
publication ont entretenus avec le gouvernement.
Mots-clés: La Estrella del
Tolima, libéralisme radical, libéralisme indépendant, nuñismo,
État Souverain du Tolima, presse.
1.
Introduction
Studying a serialized publication in the midst of the
1885 Civil War, the Political Constitution of 1886 and the signature of the Concordato of
1887 implies analysing a privileged scenario in times of political
restructuring. La Estrella del Tolima (The
Star of Tolima), a radical publication edited in Neiva between 1882 and 1884,
circulated in this context and, to be more accurate, between the civil wars of
1876 and 1877[3]. It is a moment that stands out in the history of the
liberalism of the 19th century for being a space of political
discussion that show how liberalism goes from being a dominant political force
to a fragmented party that loses its hegemony in federal politics[4].
From La Estrella
del Tolima (from now on La Estrella) the
radicals of Tolima, gathered in its capital Neiva, wrote in favor
of liberal unity. The weakening of liberalism had not emerged due to the
strengthening of its rival, the conservative party, but because of the gradual rise
of independent liberalism. In this way, in the pages of the newspaper it can be
read about the last effort of the radicals of Tolima to try to achieve the
unity of the party and to guarantee its continuity in power.
Studying La
Estrella has two historiographic peculiarities: on the one hand, the
recovery of a highly relevant newspaper for the politics of Tolima in the 19th
century, forgotten by the precarious development of the history of the press in
the region; and on the other hand, the analysis of liberal politics in a
regional perspective, useful for going in-depth into the polarization and
political fragmentation of Colombian liberalism. Thus, the reading of La Estrella allows us to have an idea of
its relevance within the press of Neiva, analysing the arguments in favour of
liberal unity between 1882 and 1884, and studying the liberal division that
preceded the political reform that we currently know as
La Regeneración
(The Regeneration).
From this perspective, we expect to contribute to the
history of the press, political history and regional history. To that end, we
start with the political context of liberalism of the 19th century;
we will continue with a comment about the studies on the press of Tolima
Grande; we will proceed to the description and analysis of La Estrella, to continue with the analysis of the political
situation of 1882 and 1884, seen from the newspaper. We will conclude with some
considerations on the work.
2.
Emergence and crisis of radical liberalism in the
United States of Colombia
Helen Delpar defines the Liberal Party of the 19th century as an
“aggregate of local and regional groups that could get together in critical
moments,[5]” and proposes that the term Liberal Party was associated with a set of ideas and leaders that
had power over a group of followers. Delpar adds that
this party did not have a structure in the modern sense and was prone to
division[6]. This phenomenon was studied by James Park, who explains
it based on ideological and regional differences. According to Park, in the
mid-19th century the Liberal Party fragmented for ideological
reasons between radicals (Golgothas) and moderates (Draconians)[7]. Once the radicals gained control of the national
government in 1867, it was evident that this sector favored
the three states of the eastern mountains (Santander, Boyacá and Cundinamarca).
The argument of regional discrimination and the wish to stop the radical
hegemony, apparently widened the cracks in the Liberal Party with more force
than the ideological differences did.
The presidential campaign of 1875 in which Aquileo
Parra and Rafael Núñez ran for the presidency,
revealed the characteristics of this division[8]. The nomination of Nuñez was
presented by nine liberals from the states of the coast (Bolívar, Magdalena and
Panamá) during a convention that took place in Barranquilla in January 1875[9]. He had the
support of Mosquera and the mosqueristas, of liberals who were close to the radical administrations
(Salvador Camacho Roldán, Carlos Martín, Teodoro Valenzuela, among others) and even of former
presidents of the Union, such as Santos Acosta and Eustorgio
Salgar[10]. The atmosphere of the elections, atypical and
violent[11], characterized by the accusations and pressures of
both parties, brought about, as a result, a polarized election: Parra with 4
votes (Boyacá, Cundinamarca, Santander and Magdalena), Núñez
with 2 votes (Panamá and Bolívar), Bartolomé Calvo (conservative) with 2 votes (Antioquia and Tolima),
and Cauca abstained from casting its vote. As none of the candidates obtained 5
votes, the Congress decided in favor of Parra on the
21st of February 1876.
Although the nomination of Nuñez started as a demand
of the liberals of the states of the coast, it is worth mentioning that the
rivalry between the leaders of Bolivar and Magdalena was a drawback for
Magdalena to support Nuñez. On the other hand, the
states under conservative governments (Antioquia and Tolima), although they
were close to Nuñez, voted for Bartolomé
Calvo in order not to oppose the radicals, with whom they had agreements[12]. With Parra’s victory, the radicals managed to
maintain the presidency of the country and led the liberal unity that achieved
a victory before the conservative revolution of Cauca between 1876-1877.
Moreover, the electoral triumph allowed for a displacement in the conservative
governments of Antioquia and Tolima, and further replacement by the radicals.
Although the conservatives were militarily defeated, they never left the
political scene: there was a reorientation of their ways of doing politics: they
went on to have a more national orientation, above the regional orientation,
more centralized than federalist and more secular than religious[13]; they understood their military weakness, abandoned
the war strategy, and strengthened collaboration with the non-radical liberals,
with which they favored the liberal factionalism.
Under these conditions, Núñez was the president of the State of Bolívar in 1877[14], whereas the remaining eight states were
ruled by radicals. However, far from being politically isolated, Núñez represented
the discomfort regarding the radical hegemony, which started to be known as
independent liberalism within the radical factions[15].
The independents, constituted as a different faction of radicalism,
promoted and defended the idea of liberal unity, which was supported by Julián Trujillo Largacha as
president of the United States of Colombia in 1878 (with the absolute support
of the voters, 9 votes). The administration of Trujillo was characterized by
the inclusion of the independents in the creation of the secretariats of the
state administration[16]. The radicals of the time saw Trujillo’s initiative
as a form of treason. In this context, the following presidential elections,
disputed once again between Parra and Nuñez, were
characterized by the division of liberalism and the opposition of the radicals
to Nuñez and his presidential aspirations.
The government of Trujillo sought to face the crisis that the country
was in with a program different from the radicals[17]. The change of government in the states was the
consequence of several factors: the alliance between independents and
conservatives, the role of liberal unity during the war, the permissive
attitude of the central government and the weakening of radical liberalism as
an alternative to the crisis of states like Cauca. This administrative change,
originated by different causes in each state, marked the beginning of a
political panorama where the radical faction merely survived and its followers
gave speeches and made programs to avoid its disappearance[18].
Only in Antioquia and Tolima, did radicals manage to keep control of the
states, in spite of the attempts of the independents to displace them. Tomas Rengifo in Antioquia managed to overcome riots and the war
of 1879, declared against the interior by the independents allied with the
conservatives. In the meantime, in Tolima, Neiva had become the core of radical
liberalism, retaking the liberal past of the southern area of the state. In
1879, when the radical Fruto Santos was elected as president of the state, Didacio Delgado started a military campaign with the
support of the independents, which left from Cundinamarca to Tolima, but it did
not succeed as there was no support from the inhabitants of Tolima.
At the beginning of the 1880, radical liberals had lost their strength
in 7 out of the 9 states and, paradoxically, maintained the government in the
two that had been governed by conservatives in 1876. The transfer of power that
started during the government of Trujillo had ended[19], as was shown by the victory of Núñez
in the elections of 1879 by obtaining 7 out of the 9 possible votes[20]. With this change in national politics, in which
liberalism was going down a path that led to its disintegration, in the
editorial arena of Neiva there appeared La
Estrella, with the objective of promoting the cohesion of the liberal
party, which had been so much affected by the transformations mentioned
previously.
3.
La Estrella del Tolima in the
historiography
Placing La Estrella historiographically
allows us to analyze the history of the press on a national and regional level.
In the general works on the history of journalism in Colombia, by Gustavo Otero Muñoz[21]
and Antonio Cacua Prada[22] there
is no reference to the newspaper studied. However, in the Catalogo publicaciones seriadas siglo XIX (Catalogue of serialized publications of the 19th
century), there appear the newspapers published in Neiva,
which are conserved in the National Library of Colombia (BCN, by its acronym in
Spanish) among which appear La Estrella and
its editor Alejandro Rojas[23].
In his book La imprenta en Colombia, Tarsicio
Higuera analyzes the development of the printing press in the different cities
of the country and includes a list of the newspapers edited in each one of them[24]. Higuera affirms that he did not find any further
information about the printing press in Neiva, except for the fact that in 1884
Alejandro Rojas signed the imprint of the Registro Oficial del Estado del Tolima (official
registry of the State of Tolima) and officiated as its editor. In his
inventory, Higuera relates La Estrella
as an 1884 publication[25], nowadays we know that it was edited between 1882 and
1884.
There is no general study regarding the press in the
Sovereign State of Tolima. However, Agustín Angarita Somoza in Historia del periodismo en el Tolima intended to present a list of
publications edited in Tolima Grande, from the 19th century until 1970 and to
include Neiva, Garzón and El Gigante.
According to the author, the work could not be carried out because of a fire
that took place in the Departmental Press in Neiva and, as a consequence, the
book only includes the publications of the current department of Tolima[26]. Thus, the works
that we found about the press in Tolima have dealt with some of its capitals,
mainly Ibagué and Neiva[27].
Some of the works on the press of the 19th century in
Neiva reproduce the information found in the Catálogo de todos los periódicos que existen desde su fundación hasta
el año de 1935 edited by the BNC[28] and in the book Cien
años de prensa en Colombia 1840-1940. Catálogo indizado
de la prensa existente en la Sala de Periódicos de la Biblioteca Central de la
Universidad de Antioquia[29] (newspaper catalogs). We refer to
Delimiro Moreno, in his work “Periódicos huilenses 1840-1890[30],” and to Reynel Salas
Vargas in “Relación de periódicos editados en
el departamento del Huila,” in existence in the newspaper and periodicals library “Manuel del
Socorro Rodríguez,” of the National
Library[31]. Both works only make inventories of the newspapers
from Neiva kept in the repositories of the Universidad de Antioquia (UdeA, by its acronym in Spanish) or the BNC.
For his part, Francisco Sánchez Ramírez,
in Periodismo en el Huila presents notes on the press
in Neiva, and on the journalists and publications of the department of Huila.
His work includes La Estrella and
establishes its period of edition between 1882 and 1884[32]. On the other hand, Camilo Francisco Salas Ortiz has
researched on journalism in Huila in Historia del periodismo huilense. La prensa escrita and in Trayectoria del periodismo huilense[33]. Salas describes the publications from Huila, their
editorial characteristics and, in some cases, he points out their political
tendencies. With regard to La Estrella, he
only retakes the information that Delimiro Moreno
reproduced in his book Cien años de prensa en Colombia. Álvaro Trilleras
Roa adopts a different method, when he affirms, although
erroneously, in Del linotipo
al satellite that La Estrella was
the property of Francisco Javier Zaldúa[34]. In the newspaper, the figure of Zaldúa
appeared as the presidential candidate that they supported, but not, and it is
important to be emphatic in this, as figure of the owner of the newspaper.
We can infer that only Álvarez
Gaviria and Uribe de Hincapié
have contributed with precise information about La Estrella, and that their work has been a guide to all those
interested in the press of 19th century Neiva. Although Cien años de prensa en Colombia is a catalogue and does not include
a detailed analysis of La Estrella, it
collects important information about its content, for example: that it was a
weekly publication of a radical tendency; that it was in conflict with La Luz of Bogotá; and that it defended
the nominations of José Eusebio Otálora
and Solón Wilches for the
federal presidency[35].
We observe that there is a knowledge gap with regard
to the press edited in the Sovereign State of Tolima and the city of Neiva. For
our part, we have contributed with an article (in Spanish) called Prensa decimonónica de la ciudad de Neiva. Apuntes
para su historia, in which we present a relationship of the serialized publications of the city, accompanied
by commentaries on their contents and themes[36]. In these conditions, we hope to make a
double historiograhic contribution: on the one hand,
with the history of the press in Neiva and the Sovereign State of Tolima
through the study of one of its longer-lasting newspapers; and on the other
hand, to shed some light on a transcendental moment in Colombian political
history regarding a regional topic. For this reason, La Estrella is presented as a window through
which to see the dawn of the liberalism of the 19th century from
Tolima, after the rupture between the radicals and the independents as the prequel
to The Regeneration.
4.
La Estrella del Tolima (Neiva, 1882-1884)
La Estrella was published in Neiva in the 1880s, the period of the
greatest flow of newspapers in the city during the19th century[37]. The press of the time insisted on several topics,
for instance: the economic and commercial progress of the Sovereign State of
Tolima, its administrative organization in its different departments and the
ordering of the Dioceses of Tolima[38]. However, there is a topic that stands out in the
press of Neiva for its dynamism and recurrence: the disintegration of the
Liberal Party and the search for its cohesion after the civil war of 1876-1877.
This topic appears in publications such as El Elector (1883), El Bien Público (1883) and El Alto
Magdalena (1884), from which integration of liberalism was promoted and
defended, from the radical sector or the independent one. However, only in La Estrella, a forum of the radical
opinion of Tolima was consolidated, which had links with the government of
Tolima and that, different from other newspapers, survived the presidential
elections of the Sovereign State. For this reason, we propose and intend to
show that La Estrella was
consolidated and presented as a flag of the radicalism of Tolima and its most
representative publication.
The first issue of La
Estrella was published on 6th May, 1882, and the last one that
is kept dates from 7th December, 1884 (no. 103). It was a weekly
publication, though it had certain interruptions, and its owner and editor was Alejandro Rojas. The figure of Rojas is recurrent in the
press of Neiva as he appears as editor or leader of the publication of 6 out of
the 19 newspapers edited in Neiva in the 1880s[39]. Although Rojas’ birthplace is unknown,
we know that he was “the son of another state[40].” Between 1882 and 1884, we could
establish two key links between Rojas and the government of the state: first,
his connection as a contractor with the State Press from 1881 to 1884, and
second, the role he performed as president of the Municipal Corporation of
Neiva in 1883[41]. These charges allow us to understand the
editorial continuity and its relevance for radicalism on the eve of the civil
war of 1885, since as editor he had guarantees and the support of the state
government[42]. Then, it would not be unwise to think
that, as Clodomiro Castillo would indicate, La
Estrella represented, for some time, the liberal idea of retaking arms before
the ascension of Núñez[43].
The work carried out by Alejandro Rojas in
the State Press was well-spoken of in Memoria del Secretario de Gobierno del Tolima
de 1881, written by Miguel María Durán G., who remembered that:
[…] the typographic premises, property of the government,
is in a situation close to completely ruined, and was it not for the funds
provided by the contractor Mr. Alejandro Rójas, it
would be impossible at this point, with the elements with which the press counts,
to make any publication whatsoever[44].
The secretary, radical and editor of La Estrella, added: “Once his contract expires, which will be on 31st
December of the current year, and Mr. Rojas takes from the premises his
belongings, brought recently, the State Press will be useless[45].” A group of editors collaborated in La Estrella, who represented the active
core of radicalism in Neiva and that made out of the newspaper their vehicle of
political struggle. Among them, we can
mention: Miguel María Durán (editor in chiefl), José Lizardo
Porras and Belisario Arciniegas[46].
There is a relevant section on Alejandro Rojas in Historia del periodismo colombiano
by Cacua. The author affirms that Rojas bought,
with the blessing of Jacobo Sánchez (governor of
Cundinamarca), the printing press where El
Tradicionista was published, which was edited by
Miguel Antonio Caro in Bogotá between
1871 and 1876 in opposition to the radical government of Aquileo
Parra[47]. This reference is relevant to clarify the origin of
the machines that worked in the Printing Press of the State of Tolima, owned by
Rojas, as this suggests that there is a relationship between the expropriation
of El Tradicionista
and the printing press in Neiva.
When studying the law of absolute freedom of the press in the United
States of Colombia (part 6, article 15 of the Constitution of Rionegro), Posada Carbó points
out that the confiscations, censorship and expropriations effected during the
Radical Olympus contradict the liberal policy of the printing press[48]. Among the most relevant cases of confiscation, there
is the expropriation of El Tradicionista.
On 9th October 1876, the first police force of the Sovereign
State of Cundinamarca, with a branch in Bogota, decided on the payment of 6.000
pesos against El Tradicionista
through a forced loan[49]. On the 18th of that same month, the valuation
of the goods that were on the premises of El
Tradicionista was carried out and there were
found “one imperial press number 5, another one number 4, 9 fonts made of wood,
hollow frames, iron frames, composing frames, cutting machines,” among other
goods. The total value rose to 6,152 pesos[50]. After the
appraisal, it was established that on the 28th October of that year,
there would be an auction of the goods along with the printing press of El Tradicionista, and that of La Ley, property of José María Samper[51]. As it is registered in the Minutes of the Auction[52], the only person who appeared was Alejandro Rojas
with his guarantor Diógenes Arrieta
and they made a bid of 3,706 pesos, half of the price of the valuation[53]. Rojas’ proposal was approved and Caro’s printing
press changed to the hands of Rojas. Needless to say that Caro accused the
government of the abuse perpetrated upon its more well-known adversary (El Tradicionista)
and he claimed for the restitution of his printing press, an event that never
took place[54].
In response to Caro, Dámaso Zapata, secretary
of the Government of the Sovereign State of Cundinamarca, sent a letter to the
secretary of Hacienda and Public Works, in which he sustained that the reason
for the expropriation was the “ill will” that the editors of the newspaper
printed in their pages[55] and that in no way the printing press would be
destroyed, since the person who had acquired it, Alejandro Rojas, had sold the
machines to the printing press of the government of Cundinamarca for the same
price as that of the auction. In addition, that government had decided that the
printing presses in their power were adjudicated to the heads of each Sovereign
State, according to Decree 427 of the Executive Power of Cundinamarca.
This point is relevant for the study of the printing press of the
Sovereign State of Tolima, given that by means of said decree, published in the
Diario de Cundinamarca on 2nd July
1877[56], the machines confiscated (among which there was the
one of El Tradicionista)
would be adjudicated to the different states, with the aim of supplying them
with the machines and necessary equipment for the functioning of the printing
presses and to stimulate the publication of newspapers which fostered the
interests of the government and incentivized knowledge among states[57]. Considering that Rojas entered the editorial scene
of Neiva in 1879 with the publication of La Unión Liberal and
that, after that year, newspapers proliferated in Neiva, it is plausible that
one of the printing presses confiscated in Bogotá since 1876, such as La Ley and El Tradicionista, could reach the city
and turn into the engine of the Printing Press in Neiva, that is to say, the
official printing press of the state.
The design of La Estrella was constant during its existence in its size, design
and extension. A visible change took place in its heading, sober until issue
91:
Source: La Estrella
del Tolima, no. 1 (6 May, 1882), Neiva.
And expressive and beautifully evocative
since issue 92:
Source: La Estrella del Tolima, no. 92 (21 September, 1884), Neiva.
The change in the nameplate allows us to
understand two things: on the one hand, the name of the newspaper, and on the
other, the virtues of the region that they wanted to recover. According to the
editors, the nameplate suggested that:
Liberalism has permeated in this state with deep roots
and lives in the spirits with the magnificent life of a tropical nature. Under
this sun, in these plains, before this river, it is impossible not to love
freedom, which is a light like the sun, which is productive like those plains,
and carries the impulsive force like that river, enclosing in each breath a germ
of life and progress. That star that illuminates above the high snows, eternal
as the law, is a star of freedom that wants to give light and life to democracy[58].
Among the content of La Estrella appears an extensive and conspicuous tribute to those
who died in the times of the publication: Liborio Duran, Manuel Ancízar, María Concepción Tello de Arciniegas, Francisco
Javier Zaldúa, Miguel María Durán (editor of La Estrella) and José María Rojas
Garrido. Paying homage to the deceased liberals was a way of paying tribute to
their supporters and, above all, a mechanism of the editors so as to call for
the cohesion of the party through figures such as Duran and Rojas Garrido, who,
from their perspective, represented the archetypal liberal; in other words,
characters used as rhetorical figures to combat the disintegration of
liberalism.
5.
La Estrella del Tolima, the last breath of radical liberalism of
Tolima
On May 6, 1882, the first issue of La Estrella was circulated in Neiva and
announced:
This paper has no program. Founded to uphold the
interests of the liberal cause in the Republic, it will take the course that
the principles of this school determine in the normal or unforeseen course of
political events. Intended also to serve the special interests of Tolima, its
columns will preferably be occupied with everything related to the
administrative, intellectual and commercial march of the state (...) La Estrella del Tolima, founded with its own elements, sustained, so we
hope, by the patriotic contest of Tolima liberalism, will lead an existence
independent of the public powers and will try to be, as far as possible, the
echo of social interests and the moderate but energetic voice of the sensible
opinion of the state[59].
The "liberal" cause of the
Republic that La Estrella defended
was radical liberalism. In assuming themselves to be the true liberalism, the
radicals who were part of and had business with the government of the state,
used the newspaper as a vehicle to make known their interpretation of the
situation of the country and of Tolima. Their objective was to achieve the
strengthening of the party which, as we have said, had lost power in the face
of the independent liberals. In order to unravel the nature of this last breath
of radical liberalism, we will study La
Estrella from the political perspective, through two axes: first, the
federal situation and the strategy assumed by the editors of the newspaper when
radicalism was a minority in the central government; and second, the reading of
the situation of Tolima, paying attention to the strategy of keeping the radicals
in the government of the state.
La Estrella del Tolima
and the national situation
Under the subtitle, "What was there
and what is there", in its first issue, the editors presented a report on
the situation of the country since 1876, in which they stated that April 1,
1878, the beginning of the presidency of Julián Trujillo, was a disastrous date
for the Republic, in contrast to the, for them, "glorious" presidency
of Aquileo Parra.
In the editorial, Parra's closing presidential
speech was interpreted as a call for the union of the liberals, since it was
addressed to "the great liberal masses of the Republic, with the fraternal
embrace of the sincerest reconciliation[60]." In addition, Parra was defined as a model
president, citizen and soldier, to the point of being considered the true
winner of the war of 1876, the Colombian Carnot[61]. In contrast, Trujillo is described as a
warlord who, motivated by incomprehensible obfuscation, became an
"unconscious instrument of the personal ambitions of a few[62] "and hit in the face "with
the hilt of his sword, the most distinguished of his companions of the previous
day." The radicals at La Estrella
accused Trujillo of being a traitor, of leaving the Liberal Party "close
to its fall, sold its existence like that of Christ, for the thirty denarii of
a wretched salary[63]."
The editors of La Estrella established another date as key, April 1, 1882, the day
of the inauguration of Francisco Javier Zaldúa in the
presidency of the United States of Colombia. For them, this event represented a
"change of front" and "the hope for better days for the liberal
cause." According to them, with Zaldúa, the
banner of discord that Trujillo had left in the national palace had been
removed, and what remained in its place was, "in the wind, the generous
banner of liberal reconciliation, firmly wielded by the nervous hand of an old
man who upon bidding farewell to life, will bequeath to the youth and history,
the precious treasure of such a patriotic example"[64].
Supporting the candidacy of Francisco
Javier Zaldúa, an independent liberal, was the
strategy proposed by radicals Aquileo Parra, Santos
Acosta, Santiago Perez and Eustorgio Salgar within the framework of the liberal union organized
on April 24, 1881[65]. Through the support of Zaldúa they sought to reabsorb the independent leaders[66], and indeed they succeeded, thanks to the
support of such figures as Julián Trujillo, Pablo Arosemena, Salvador Camacho Roldán
and Hermógenes Wilson[67], who joined the radical governing board
with intentions of weakening Núñez.
Radical support for Zaldúa
was rewarded with the appointment of some radicals in the country's
secretariats, namely: Felipe Zapata (Foreign Relations), Wenceslao
Ibáñez (War and the Marine) and José María Villamizar (Treasury). The appointments were not well
received by Núñez and the independents, who opposed
the congress by rejecting them and forcing the president, according to the laws
in force, to propose other people for the positions. In this context, the
editors of La Estrella began with the
defense of Zaldúa and the dignity of the radical leaders
and their right to participate actively in politics, then violated by the exclusion
of independents who operated from the congress.
This defense found an antagonistic
response from La República. In this independent liberal publication,
they defended the candidacy for the presidency of Núñez
(1880-1882) and it was defined as a path to the future[68], while the radicals were identified as
the cause of the liberal division:
The radicals have no confidence in Mr. Zaldúa, and this because, although he wanted to give them a
share in the government, he has not allowed himself to be drawn into the
politics of hatred and persecution in the name of tolerance and concord. They
appear to be directors of the new policy, but there, in the bosom of intimacy,
they realize that nothing that they dream for can now be realized. His job is
to prepare the ground for the future presidency[69].
The discourse of the independents is
presented as contrary to that of La
Estrella and its editors. For the radicals, the danger was not the
conservatives, but the independents, who were strengthened and had stripped
them of power in the country. Therefore, Zaldúa's
polemic in La Estrella is, at bottom,
the fight against Núñez and independent liberalism,
against the division that the radicals saw as a betrayal, as is extracted from
the following editorial:
We suspect that a conspiracy against order is
being forged, and we see that this conspiracy develops in the form of a long
provocation to the peoples, who, starting from very few malcontents, will be
reflected in the very heart of the Senate, where tired unpatriotic voices resonate,
give encouragement and make it spread among the masses. From which part this
long provocation to the assault of the public order and in what form is this provocation
exercised? Let's say it. This provocation starts from the disruptive spirit of
some personal ambitions that have been undermined, and from some hardened and
diseased consciences[70].
When the editors of La Estrella mentioned personal ambitions, they referred to Núñez and the independents, whom they constantly
controverted for the publications of the newspaper La Luz of Bogotá, in which Núñez was a
collaborator. As a token of this we bring to the fore an editorial of La Estrella in which the radical
liberals of Tolima responded to the article published in issue 131 of La Luz under the name of
"Philosophy of the situation":
The able statesman, who, unhappy with the evils
caused by his failures, weaknesses and corruptions, still persists in
reestablishing the dominion of abuses and in opposing the just reparations that
the national moral and law claim after so much scandal, so much outrage and so
much shameless affront to the good sense of Colombians. If we were not in
possession of the assurance that the intelligence of the chief editor of La Luz is one of the most privileged in
the country, and that he has given evidence of a vast enlightenment: upon
reading the article we are dealing with, we could, without fear of being called
reckless, describe as stupid the hand that traced those lines or insane the
head that sheltered such concepts[71].
Through texts such as the above, La Estrella spread the image of Núñez as a corrupt and obstinate statesman, the author and
representative of the division of liberalism. This image is opposed to the independent
publications such as La Luz, in which
Núñez is a figure of recognition and homage because,
according to the editors and collaborators, he led the country on the path of
administrative regeneration. Similar treatment is made of the problem of
relations between the Congress and Javier Zaldúa,
because while La Luz insisted that
Congress did nothing more than defend the policies of the presidency of Nuñez, in La Estrella,
Zaldúa was presented as the man of liberal unity
trapped by the conspiracy of corrupt men like Núñez.
It could not be otherwise, because La Luz
was a platform for independent liberal Núñez
supporters and of the same Nuñez, while La
Estrella was the bulwark of radicalism in Tolima[72].
Under the title "Our Program,"
the editors of La Estrella stated
that their attacks on Núñez and personalism
had been carried out "in moderation, but with republican energy"[73], and that they responded to the need to
strengthen liberal doctrines and the spirit of conciliation, debilitated by
"the fateful shadows" that had stood in the way of the conciliation,
disturbing the hopes of peace. They clearly referred to the independent
liberals, naming them Iscariots, that is, traitors. However, the cited editorial
also indicated that it would change the tone of its discourse in case of an
agreement in Bogota between the president and the congressmen, because in that
case they would be willing to lay down their complaints. Thus, in La Estrella, it declared itself open to
dialogue whenever the opposition of Congress to Zaldúa
in Bogotá ended.
The invitation to dialogue and the apparent
justification of the language with which they had referred to the independents,
responded to the rapprochements between the political forces in Bogota. These
approaches were interpreted in the section "Interior," under the
title "Special Correspondence of La
Estrella," as evidence of the "decadence of nuñismo[74]." This optimism, which was also
expressed in issues 13 and 14 of the newspaper, declined when Congress rejected
the nominations of Eugenio Castilla[75] and
Felipe Pérez in their posts as secretaries.
The rejection of the appointment, by Congress,
of the Tolima man Eusebio Castilla,
realized by Zaldúa, was understood by La Estrella as a disloyalty, an example of the
demoralization of political conduct and an outrage against the Sovereign State
of Tolima[76]. Faced with what had happened, the
editors of La Estrella wondered about
the roads left open to liberalism, which were twofold: rebellion or compliance.
"The people" (in other words, the liberals) were, according to the
editors:
[…] between law and violence, between liberty and
slavery, between autonomy and vassalage, and between the chain and the law,
[for] the people, who in the legal system are sovereign, and in the
dictatorship the victims, are who should choose. The two endings of the dilemma
are so terrible, that the hand trembles when opting for either of them.[77]
Once war returned to be part of the
language of the publication, Nuñez was more critical
than before. The atmosphere of war was also visible in articles such as "The
supreme hour is approaching[78],"
in which the editors analyzed the situation of liberalism in the states and
concluded that nuñismo,
although it had control of the assemblies of Panama, Boyacá, Bolivar, and
Cundinamarca, was divided and vulnerable, so that the "supreme hour,"
when the radicals would fill the void and correct the liberal division, was
near.
As we observed, the radicals of La Estrella defended Francisco Javier Zaldúa even if he was not a radical, since they assumed
that negotiating was their best strategy in the face of the impossibility of
launching their own candidate and winning. After the death of Zaldúa on December 21st, 1882, his replacement
by the government was Jose Eusebio Otálora[79], the same that appeared in the change of
government from radical to independent in Boyacá.
At first the editors of La Estrella focused their attention, although
with caution, on the figure of Otálora due to his
independent affiliation[80]. Nevertheless, on the 29th of
July of 1883, following the instructions received from Bogota, they announced
his presidential candidacy for the period 1884-1886[81]. Nevertheless, the strategy of the
radicals was a failure, for, as seen in La
Estrella, despite the fact that the radicals affirmed that Otálora would strengthen the liberal union, concord and the
peace with which they could return to power, he was indecisive and rejected his
presidential nomination before the nuñista pressure[82].
Otálora renounced the presidency in an adverse atmosphere in
the Congress and was replaced on the 1st of April of 1884 by
Ezequiel Hurtado as designated. On August 1, 1884, after an election in which
the radicals supported Solon Wilches and only obtained
the votes of Antioquia, Santander and Tolima, Rafael Núñez
attained, for the second time, the position of president of the United States
of Colombia, which made it clear that the reforms against radicalism would
continue, as would the process the of centralization of political power. Under
these conditions, the editors of La
Estrella were in an adverse scenario, where the architect of the division
of liberalism was again in charge of the national government, ratifying the
weakness of radicalism. The editors of the newspaper proposed to defend the
first magistrate of the Union while it persisted "in the healthy
intentions that animate it[83]"; otherwise, "if the harmful
elements that dominate among the reactionaries are imposed on its policy[84]," the answer should be to fight them
"for the Fatherland, for freedom.”
La
Estrella turned its attention to the Sovereign
State of Santander due to the uprisings in arms against the general Solón Wilches, who was accused of
electoral fraud[85]. The threat of war was part of the
content in the newspaper, where the events of Santander were treated as if they
were those of Tolima. The dissolution of the convention in Santander was
interpreted as an affront to radical liberalism on the part of the Nuñez government, and its editors accused the federal
president of leading the country to war:
The situation of the country imposes a policy
that is not the one that dissolves the popular senates and imposes
arbitrariness as law […] we raise the call to tell Mr. Núñez that he has lost the way of the policy he called for
when he declared himself irrevocably liberal. We are seeing the two paths and
the two horizons toward which they are directed: in the map of politics, are
clearly pointed out these opposing ways and we do not understand how this one
is abandoned that leads to peace, to reorganization, to take that which leads
through war, to decay[86].
The radicals of Tolima feared that the
situation in Santander would unleash a general war for which they were not
prepared. The strategy of giving in to the central government in the hope of
developing alliances that would gave them participation, was a failure in the
face of the preponderance that the independents took away from them. While the
situation of the country was adverse to the radicals, in Tolima the liberal
division also existed. Faced with this situation La Estrella had a role to play, it should strengthen radical
liberalism in the state
La Estrella del Tolima, semi-official publication of the government of
Tolima
The radical liberals were a preponderant political sector in Tolima when
the publication of La Estrella
started on 6th May 1882. On 22 July 1882 (no. 12), its editors
presented a report on what the first 11 publications had been. In it they
affirmed to have defended the liberal cause, since they had informed according
to themselves on what had happened and was happening in the “mysterious regions
where the transcendental matters of the highest spheres of politics in the
country are aired [87].”
In their editorial, the editors informed that the matters related to
Tolima were sidelined, subjected to the attention that was paid to federal
politics. The absence of matters, such as the electoral debates in Tolima, in La Estrella, are related to the fact
that, apparently, they took for granted that the forces of radicalism in the
state were strong enough to maintain control over the positions in the
government. What they were interested in was the presidency of the United
States of Colombia, since it was from there that the disastrous consequences of
the liberal division came.
In contrast to the wishes of the editors, in 1882 the presidential
election of the Sovereign State of Tolima of the following year arose the
interest of their subscribers, who manifested their opinion through letters to
the newspaper[88]. The editorial
section, which was in charge of those letters, not to promote a candidate in
particular, but to make a call for unity and agreement among the liberals in
the following terms:
Our pages, under no circumstances, and under no
pretense, will mediate in the electoral debate. If, unfortunately, the liberal
party is not working together, their efforts will head towards keeping the
uniformity of the interests of our common group, defending the flag, serving
our causes, avoiding that the Motherland suffers from new pains, and saving
this dear soil from any injury, already used to peace, impatient because of the
work, and undisturbed and serene in the normal life of constitutionality. But
if we note that the renewal of power will be verified through a heated fight
against our political adversaries, for whom we ask broad guarantees, we will
fulfill our duty because in the field of the doctrine, we will not sacrifice an
inch of our ideas, and in the field of the practice, we know that a change of
parties in public power generates changes in the institutions[89].
While the electoral debate, of which La
Estrella marginalized itself with its silence, was taking place, in the
section of collaborators a text by A. Terreros was
published, titled Los tres
circuitos electorales en el
Tolima (The three electoral circuits in Tolima) [90]. Terreros lamented the
inferiority of the department of the North in the Departmental Assembly, since
while the departments of the Center and South had 13 representatives each, the
North only had 9, a measure that, he says, was taken by the radicals as a
consequence of the 1876-1877 war. Terreros was not
wrong, for the radicals, victorious in the war, decided in the Constituent
Assembly to limit the power of the North, an area controlled by conservatives
who dictated the fate of Tolima between 1867 and 1876. The establishment of the
capital in Neiva responded to the same interest of weakening the North and
strengthening the South.
The editors of La Estrella
published the contribution of Terreros to comment on
it in the following issue[91]. In response, they proposed to carry out a census in
order to obtain information that allowed for the equitable distribution of the
number of delegates per circuit. The analysis on the issue of the state, in the
editorial section was not common in La
Estrella, we consider that the discontent in the department of the North
was evident, as well as difficult to justify that the radicals of Tolima
offered solutions to the public, although we have no evidence of that census
taking place.
Despite the comments on the electoral circuits, the editors refused to
support a candidate for the elections that were to take place. La Estrella left
that local debate in the hands of other newspapers. The liberal candidates were: Acisclo Molano,
Clímaco Iriarte[92] and Gabriel
González Gaitán[93]. The first, was an openly independent liberal; the
second, a radical supported by some independents and conservatives; and the
last one, a radical[94]. Pastor Herrera was the candidate for the conservatives.
The absence of La Estrella in the debate
brought complaints upon it, according to the same publication. They explained
once again that their intention was not to contribute to the liberal division,
since the candidates who had chances were all from the same party. [95] In the end, they accepted to publish the adherence
to the liberal candidates submitted to the editorial office starting with
González Gaitán. When they expressed not having
knowledge of other adhesions[96], the followers of other candidates protested
against this, and the editors decided to give a space “to everything published
in relation to the candidacies,” even pamphlets[97].
According to a correspondent from Honda[98], the publication of adhesion to Iriarte
was done too late. The correspondent congratulated La Estrella for seeking the unity of the Liberal Party, but added that its silence
during the electoral debate, not getting involved, worsened the division, for
it had left the liberals in a state of confusion. The correspondent expressed
not knowing who the best candidate was, but he did know that the state needed a
president who closed the doors to nuñismo, rejected
the invasions against the state and had the “merits of Fruto
Santos to be part of the doctrinaire Liberal Party, and the honesty and
sensibility of Marcelo Barrios[99].” The
treatment received by Clímaco Iriarte presents us with an
unclear division with the independents in Tolima, in which correspondents, such
as that of Honda, categorized as radical, a candidate supported by the
independents.
This passive
attitude regarding the contest led to the editors of La Estrella being criticized by El
Diario de Cundinamarca, a publication considered
to be the “dean of the liberal press in Colombia [100].” This newspaper reproached them for not making
public who their candidate was or supporting him for the presidential elections
of Tolima[101] and, also, for not fulfilling their duties as a radical
organization who had to inform and guide the liberals of Tolima. La Estrella defended itself by arguing
that it wanted to avoid the division in liberalism, of which the United States
of Colombia was a victim. The contest continued. The Diario de Cundinamarca then accused La
Estrella of favoring Gabriel González, whom the former considered to be a
candidate that was officially imposed by the government of Tolima, where he was
a secretary of the government.
La Estrella defended the figure of González by saying that he was a suitable
candidate and that he did not need their support, for the people of Tolima knew
him and would choose who they saw fit[102]. So there was a candidate who was part of the
government of Tolima, where Miguel María Durán was a secretary of the government
of Tolima and Alejandro Rojas was the president of the Municipal Corporation of
Neiva. Thus, the accusation was not without basis.
In the issues that followed, La
Estrella continued to focus its attention on the development of the
presidential campaign of the state, which, according to their editorials,
deepened the liberal division, since three candidates from the same party were
running against each other, whereas the conservatives had chosen one candidate
and were supporting him. Under these circumstances, in May a pamphlet circulated
from A.P. printing press, in the city of Neiva, under the name of Defensa de un ciudadano (Defense of a citizen)[103], in which Eusebio Castilla, signing as president of
the Central Liberal Committee of the South department, addressed the readers of
La Estrella in order to express his
concern for the division in the radical party and for having been attacked in La Estrella[104], as a result of a memo that, as president of the
Liberal Central Committee of the department of the South of the state of
Tolima, he directed to José Benito Gaitán, printer of
the Diario de Cundinamarca.
The cause of the dispute lies in the election of the Central Committee of
the department of the South. According to the editors of La Estrella, the call for candidates was public and open to all
liberals, and it took place on 21st April in the Colegio
Santa Librada. Among its members, the following were
appointed: José María Lombana,
Ignacio Antonio Trujillo and Miguel María Durán, among others. Castilla’s opinion
on the matter was that it was a meeting of the employees of the government of
the Sovereign State to which the important liberals of the capital (Neiva) were
not invited, so it was a political maneuver.
Eusebio Castilla affirmed that the liberals who were
not part of the government had a meeting the following day and chose him for the committee, along with Liborio Díaz, Ramón Salas and Eugenio Castilla[105]. At the same time, the editors of La Estrella published letters from
citizens who attended the meeting of the 21st as evidence to accuse Castilla of
lying, since the witnesses said they did not know anything about a meeting with
the characteristics described by Castilla, they even denied that there was a
place other than Santa Librada that had the capacity to hold that type of
meeting[106]. Castilla defended
himself in the midst of the controversy by presenting the transcription of a
letter in which liberal leaders from Tolima[107] informed him that it was proved that fraud had been
committed in the meeting of the 21st. According to Castilla, the
leaders of his party advised him to remain silent on the matter in order not to
generate more confrontations among liberals in times of elections.
In the elections in Tolima,
on 2nd September 1883, Gabriel González Gaitán[108] won
against Acisclo Molano, as Clímaco Iriarte had declined his
candidacy in August[109]. Gaitán took office on 15th December and he
referred to the political state in the following terms:
he agitation that a few
months ago caused alarm and restlessness, and that led people to believe in a
disruption of the public order, in the Nation as well as in the State, have
slowly come to an easing, to the extent that there are some who believe that
the political situation is totally resolved. However, there are still small
shadows on the political horizon that do not allow us to see the clearly the
future of the Republic, this leads some to think that it is necessary to pay
attention to this matter[110].
The agitation to which the president of the state refers is not any in
particular, since in La Estrella, almost
constantly there were rumors of an imminent war in which the radicals would
have to take part, so as to defend themselves. They did not talk about going to
war to take back what was theirs, but to guarantee their survival.
The controversy for the presidential elections of Tolima continued even
after they finished. Independent liberals published a pamphlet in June 1883
titled La cuestión
Tolima, la actitud del Centro (The matter of
Tolima. The attitude of the Center), in which they defended the need for liberalism
to join the conservatives around Acisclo Molano. In La
Estrella, after Gonzalez Gaitan’s victory was
revealed, a publication was made under the title Contestación necesaria (Necessary response)[111], whose author, under the pseudonym “an old liberal,”
affirmed that he was writing from Purificación on 1st
July, 1883. This writing refuted the main argument in La cuestión Tolima, which was the history
of the alliances between liberal mosqueristas and
conservatives, describing this union as disastrous, since with it the liberals
lost their preponderance in the government of the state between 1867 and 1876.
At the same time, the independents responded to La Estrella through a pamphlet called Un viejo liberal (An old liberal),
written by José María Pérez[112], who argued that the events were not as presented in La Estrella, since the independent
liberals, according to him, were not mercenaries nor traitors, but on the
contrary, they maintained their radical principles. He used by way of example
the administrations of Zaldúa and Otálora,
which were supported by the radicals and maintained, according to José María
Pérez: “respect for the sovereignty of the states, political and religious
tolerance, the inviolability of the vote, peace, order and respect for the
majorities. [113]” The independents in Tolima sheltered behind the
discourse with radical principles as part of their strategy to reach power in a
state with a radical government. They presented themselves as members of the
liberal unity, but not as the cause of the division that the editors of La Estrella
attacked.
Precisely, the topic of the liberal unity was central in the Sovereign
State of Tolima and it deepened during the elections in 1883, in which radicals
and independents wanted the unity of the liberals, but under their ruling. The
radical José María Álvarez
published a pamphlet in the printing press of Alejandro Rojas, with the name La Unión Liberal en el Tolima y su programa (The liberal
unity in Tolima and its program[114]) in order to discuss
the political program presented by Clímaco Iriarte and Napoleón Borrero on September 23rd 1883. In the pamphlet,
he argued that the independents lacked doctrine, that they were responsible for
the liberal division and that the proposal of Iriarte
and Borrero was not faithful to the radical proposal.
In response to the pamphlet written by Alvarez, Napoleón
Borrero defended the independents and the proposal of
the liberal unity of Clímaco Iriarte
in his text Rectificaciones a la hoja titulada La Unión Liberal en el Tolima y su programa[115] (Rectifications to the pamphlet titled The liberal unity in Tolima and
its program) published in the printing press La Luz from the city of Bogota. The first of Borrero’s
arguments was that the radicals were the ones who caused the division of
liberalism. The independents argued that once the radicals won the elections of
1883 in Tolima, for the Assembly and the presidency of the state, they had lied
and excluded the independents, using La
Estrella as a means to do so, a publication that is said to be
semi-official[116] and an instrument of the president of Tolima, similar
to Gaceta del Tolima. The denunciation of the
independents about the closeness between La
Estrella and the radical government of Tolima retook the one made by the
editors of the Diario de Cundinamarca.
The editors of La Estrella expressed their idea about
liberal unity[117]. In their interpretation, “liberalism, divided in the
Nation, was also divided in Tolima,” which they considered to be natural, given
the existence of radicals and independents. The division of radicalism in 1883
in Tolima[118] was defined as incidental, as overcome. The editors
highlighted that the importance of Tolima for liberalism in the country
consisted of the possibility that that state was “the voice and the initiator
of a program of pure liberalism […] the first one in starting a great transformation
of the future,” who set the example as a party which “only had to fight against
the enemies of their ideas,” against those who 8 years before (1876)
“circumvented the rights of the people of Tolima and dominated them with an
iron fist.”
The liberal unity proposed by La
Estrella could not be achieved, given that radicalism was totally defeated.
The establishment of governments of a radical orientation in Tolima ended with
the war of 1885, in which radicals from Santander rebelled against the
independent liberals and were defeated, although the radicals from Tolima
supported their followers, disregarding the government of Nuñez,
who had ordered them to participate in the war against the radicals from
Santander. In rebellion against the central government, the radicals from
Tolima could not face the invasion of the National Guard into the state of
Tolima, which started in January 1885, under the orders of Manuel Casabianca and Juan Mateus. By
the end of March, the guard had reached its goal: ending radical power in
Tolima and leaving in the government of the state, the alliance between
independents and conservatives, with General Manuel Casabianca
as the military president of the state thanks to the appointment made by Rafael
Núñez.
6.
Final considerations
Through La Estrella del Tolima we have studied
one of the last death rattles of radicalism which, at the same time, was the
last in the sovereign State of Tolima. In its pages, we could appreciate a
desperate and failed strategy to promote liberal unity, which allows us to
confirm the relevance of La Estrella as
the most active and prolific forum of opinion and radical defense
in Tolima, given its semi-official nature and the official positions performed
by its owner Alejandro Rojas (president of the Municipal Council) and its
editor Miguel María Duran (secretary to the government of Tolima). La Estrella was the forum of radicalism,
since during its existence it was the organ in charge of disseminating the
discourse of the radical leaders who ruled the state, in a period of political
uncertainty and evident weakness of radical liberalism, which passed from
holding power and excluding its rivals, to being excluded.
The analysis of La Estrella has
allowed us to establish that it was not a merely regional publication, but that
a great part of its focus gravitated around Bogota and the changes in federal
politics. Although the editors of the newspaper planned to focus their
attention on federal matters, the political transformations of the time meant
that on the road to the presidential elections of the Sovereign State in 1883
they were obliged to participate in regional matters in order to defend
themselves from the pressures of the readers, and the accusations made by other
liberals, independents and even radicals, who affirmed that La Estrella favored the candidate of the government of the state,
Gabriel González Gaitán.
The defense of the editors regarding their “neutral position” regarding
the failed strategy of liberal unity that was promoted in the pages of La Estrella, which can be catalogued as
a desperate attempt to attract the independent liberals and negotiate with them
in order to guarantee the survival of the radicals. The strategy was not in
line with with the attacks which appeared in the editorials of the newspaper
directed at the independent liberals at a federal level, even when the aim was
to defend the independent liberals with whom they negotiated (Zaldúa and Otálora).
The publication of La Estrella
took place in a moment when liberal radicalism was crumbling day by day, and in
which a forum was necessary that informed the liberal readers and took a stance
regarding the attacks received from publications such as La Luz. The editors of La
Estrella did not set the limits of their own party in the interior of
Tolima so as to try to attract the independents towards liberal unity, this
being the most serious of their mistakes, since the independents wished to
displace the radicals from power, as they had done between 1876 and 1880 in
seven of the nine states. The editors of La
Estrella were unable to understand that each space that the independents
won, was a space lost by the radicals, despite the pacts celebrated. Even so,
the radicals did not lose spaces in the government of the state through
electoral means, for that reason, the alliance between independent liberals and
conservatives supported the invasion by the main government of Tolima and
buried the aspirations of the radical liberals of La
Estrella del Tolima, for there was no liberal unity with them, nor any
rapprochement, thus sealing in the pages of La
Estrella the last breath of the radical liberalism of the Sovereign State
of Tolima, and marking the start of a decay of the Colombian liberal party,
which, little by little would be segregated from national politics until being
simply devastated.
Documental Sources
Newspaper and Periodicals Library
“Colección de prensa del Tolima siglo XIX”. En Biblioteca
digital. Prensa siglo XIX. Ruíz Martínez, Jean Paul y Salamanca Arévalo,
Cristian. Investigadores. Bogotá. Biblioteca Nacional de Colombia, 2012. Disponible
en: http://www.bibliotecanacional.gov.co/content/prensa-tolimense-del-siglo-xix.
Newspapers
Diario de Cundinamarca [Bogotá], 1877.
La Estrella del
Tolima [Neiva], 1882-1884.
La República [Neiva], 1882,
Printed documents and manuscripts
A los habitantes del Estado. Neiva: Imprenta del Estado, 15 de diciembre de
1883.
Castillo,
Clodomiro.
Rectificaciones a la hoja titulada
“la Unión liberal en el Tolima y su programa”. Bogotá: Imprenta la Luz, 1884.
Defensa de un Ciudadano. Neiva: Imprenta de A.P. 1883.
“Diligencia
de remate”.
En Valderrama
Andrade, Carlos. El
centenario de El Tradicionista. Datos para la biografía de Miguel Antonio Caro. Bogotá: Instituto Caro y
Cuervo, 1972.
“Ejecución
contra la imprenta de ‘El Tradicionista’
por la suma de $ 6.000 que le fue asignada por empréstito forzoso”.En Valderrama
Andrade, Carlos. El
centenario de El Tradicionista. Datos para la biografía de Miguel Antonio Caro. Bogotá: Instituto Caro y
Cuervo, 1972.
“Expropiación
de la imprenta de ‘El Tradicionalista’.
Memorial”. En
Valderrama Andrade,
Carlos. El
centenario de El Tradicionista. Datos para la biografía de Miguel Antonio Caro. Bogotá: Instituto Caro y
Cuervo, 1972.
La Unión Liberal en el
Tolima y su programa. Neiva: Imprenta de A. Rojas. 10 de enero de 1884.
Memoria que el Secretario de
Gobierno del Tolima dirige al presidente del Estado para la Asamblea
Legislativa de 1881. Neiva: Imprenta del Estado,
1881.
Rectificaciones a la
hoja titulada La Unión Liberal en el Tolima y su programa. Bogotá: La Luz, 1884.
“Remates
para el pago de empréstitos forzosos”. En Valderrama
Andrade, Carlos. El
centenario de El Tradicionista. Datos para la biografía de Miguel Antonio Caro. Bogotá: Instituto Caro y
Cuervo, 1972.
Un viejo liberal. Neiva: Imprenta de A.P. 16 de octubre de 1883.
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de prensa en Colombia 1840-1940. Catálogo indizado de la prensa existente en la
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de Antioquia, 2002.
Angarita Somoza, Agustín. Historia
del periodismo en el Tolima.
T. 1. Ibagué: Editorial Tolima, 1970.
Arenas Mendoza, Hugo Andrés. ¿Estado irresponsable
o responsable? La responsabilidad patrimonial del Estado colombiano, luego de
la Guerra Civil de 1876-1877. Bogotá: Editorial Universidad
del Rosario, 2008.
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periódicos que existen desde su fundación hasta el año de 1935. T.2.
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publicaciones seriadas siglo XIX, t 2. Bogotá: Biblioteca Nacional de
Colombia/ Instituto Colombiano de Cultura, 1995.
Cacua Prada, Antonio. Historia
del periodismo colombiano. Bogotá: Fondo Rotatorio Policía
Nacional, 1968.
Cuartas Coymat, Álvaro. Tolima
Insurgente. Bogotá: Pijao Editores, 1991.
Delpar, Helen. Rojos
contra azules. El Partido liberal en la política colombiana 1863-1899. Bogotá: Procultura,
1994.
Higuera, Tarciso. La
imprenta en Colombia. Bogotá, Inalpro, 1970.
Mejía Arango, Lázaro. Los
Radicales.
Historia política del radicalismo del siglo XIX. Bogotá: Universidad Externado
de Colombia, 2007.
Moreno, Delimiro. El Huila en
el Siglo XIX. Bogotá: Vargas editor, 1994.
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la Academia Huilense de Historia.
núm. 31
(1984): 75-79.
Otero
Muñoz, Gustavo. Historia
del periodismo en Colombia. Bogotá: Universidad Sergio
Arboleda, 1998.
Ortíz Mesa, Luis Javier. Ganarse
el cielo defendiendo la religión guerras civiles en Colombia, 1840-1902.
Medellín: Universidad Nacional de Colombia, 2005.
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1876-1877”. En El radicalismo colombiano
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of Colombian Regionalism. Baton
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University of Louisiana Press, 1985.
Pérez Aguirre, Antonio. Los
radicales y la Regeneración. Bogotá:
Cromos, 1941.
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Salamanca, Camilo. “Historia del Periodismo”. En Manual de Historia del Tolima. V.
1,
Ibagué:
Pijao Editores, 2007, 360-393.
Posada
Carbó, Eduardo. “Libertad, libertinaje,
tiranía, 1863-1865”.
En Construcciones impresas. Panfletos, diarios
y revistas en la formación de los estados nacionales en América Latina,
1820-1920. México: Fondo de cultura
económica, 2003.
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y Proceres de Neiva. Bogotá: Editorial ABC, 1951.
Ruíz Martínez, Jean Paul.
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cultura y turismo, 2013,411-443.
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durante el siglo XIX”. En
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del periodismo huilense: la prensa escrita. Neiva: Instituto huilense de
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Ortiz, Camilo Francisco. “Trayectoria del
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dpto. del Huila/ Academia Huilense, 2005: 97-146.
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Vargas, Reynel. “Relación de periódicos
editados en el departamento del Huila. Existentes en la Hemeroteca Manuel del
Socorro Rodríguez de la Biblioteca Nacional”. Huila.
Órgano de la Academia Huilense de Historia, núm.37 (1987): 85-87.
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Huila”.
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núm. 31 (1984): 68-74.
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Ibagué. Bogotá, 2001.
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David Eugene. “Lazare Nicholas
Marguerite Carnot”. The
Scientific Monthly 37,
núm. 2 (agosto, 1933):
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* This article is part of the results of the scholarship
of the National Stimulus Program, “Sobre prensa regional: compilación y fichas catalográficas de la prensa del
Tolima, siglo XIX” (On the regional press: a compilation of catalog cards
of the press of the Tolima, in the 19th century). It was granted by
the National Library of Colombia and the Ministry of culture, through
resolution 1558 of 2012. We would like to thank Sergio
Mejía Macia and Adriana
Díaz for the corrections and comments to our
work, which helped us to find the way to approach this article. Another special thanks to Bernardo Tovar Zambrano
[1] Historian and Master’s degree student of History in
the Universidad
Nacional de Colombia, an institution where he
fulfils the role of assistant professor in the Academic Management for the area
of colonial history. Currently, he is interested in the history of the press,
the printing press and political history. Email address: jeanpaulruiz@gmail.com.
[2] Historian and Master’s degree student of History in
the Universidad
Nacional de Colombia. Professor in the History
program in the Universidad de Tolima and member of the research group Hechos. Historia economica y social (Facts. Economic and social
history), at the same university. At present,
he is interested in the history of the press, the printing press, and political
history. Email address: cristian.gsa@gmail.com.
[3] Regarding the civil war of 1876-1877, see the works
by Luis Javier Ortíz Mesa: Ganarse el cielo defendiendo la religión
guerras civiles en Colombia, 1840-1902, (Medellín: Universidad Nacional de
Colombia, 2005); and “Los radicales y la guerra civil de 1876-1877”, in El radicalismo colombiano del siglo XIX,
Rubén Sierra Mejía, editor, (Bogotá: Universidad Nacional de Colombia, 2006):
221-251. Also see: Hugo Andrés Arenas Mendoza, ¿Estado irresponsable o responsable? La
responsabilidad patrimonial del Estado colombiano, luego de la Guerra Civil de
1876-1877 (Bogotá, Editorial Universidad del Rosario,
2008).
[4] The factionalism of the Liberal Party and the loss of
its political hegemony has been studied in: James
W. Park, Rafael
Núñez and the Politics of Colombian Regionalism, (Baton Rouge:
University of Louisiana Press, 1985); Helen Delpar, Rojos
contra azules. El Partido liberal en la política colombiana 1863-1899, (Bogotá:
Procultura, 1994);
Lázaro Mejía Arango,
Los Radicales. Historia política del radicalismo del
siglo XIX,
(Bogotá:
Universidad Externado de Colombia, 2007) and Antonio Pérez Aguirre, Los radicales y la Regeneración, (Bogotá:
Cromos, 1941).
[5] Delpar, Rojos
contra azules… 4.
[6] Delpar, Rojos
contra azules… xxxv.
[7] Park, Rafael Núñez and
the Politics… 49.
[8] Park, Rafael
Núñez and the Politics…
140.
[9] Delpar, Rojos
contra azules... 246.
[10] Delpar, Rojos
contra azules... 248.
[11] Delpar, Rojos
contra azules... 261.
[12] In 1873, Julián Trujillo, a liberal, got the support of the conservatives in
both states, in the framework of the alliances between mosqueristas and conservatives, in order to weaken the radicals.
[13] Park, Rafael Núñez and
the Politics… 179.
[14] It was during the period 1876-1879.
[15] Park, Rafael Núñez and
the Politics …186-187.
[16] The first group of secretaries only
allowed for the participation of independent liberals: Francisco Javier Zaldúa (Secretary of Interior and Foreign Affairs), Rafael Núñez (Secretary of Hacienda and Public Works),
Salvador Camacho Roldán (Secretary of the Treasury and National Credit), and Ezequiel Hurtado (Secretary of War and the Marine).
[17] Mejía, Los
Radicales… 513-528.
[18] For a detailed study of the political survey in the
states, from radical to independent, see: Park,
Rafael Núñez
and the Politics…
[19] Park, Rafael Núñez and
the Politics… 235.
[20] Tolima and Antioquia voted for Tomás Rengifo.
[21] Gustavo Otero Muñoz, Historia del periodismo en
Colombia, (Bogotá: Universidad Sergio Arboleda, 1998).
[22] Antonio Cacua Prada, Historia del periodismo colombiano, (Bogotá: Fondo Rotatorio de la
Policía Nacional, 196).
[23] National Library of Colombia, Catalogo publicaciones seriadas siglo XIX, t
2., (Bogotá:
Biblioteca Nacional de Colombia/ Instituto Colombiano de Cultura, 1995),
493.
[24] Tarciso Higuera, La imprenta en Colombia, (Bogotá,
Inalpro, 1970).
[25] Higuera,
La imprenta en Colombia… 221.
[26] Agustín Angarita Somoza, Historia del periodismo en el Tolima, t. 1,
(Ibagué:
Editorial Tolima, 1970).
[27] For
a description of the press edited in the city of Ibagué, the following resources
can be consulted: Magdalena Santamaria
Granda, Historia y desarrollo de la
prensa en Ibagué, (Bogotá, 2001); Camilo Pérez Salamanca, “Historia del
Periodismo”, in Manual de Historia del
Tolima, t.3, by Carlos
Orlando Pardo
Rodríguez, et al., (Ibagué: Pijao Editores, 2007), 360-393.
[28] National Library of
Colombia, Catálogo de todos los periódicos que existen desde su fundación hasta
el año de 1935, t.2, (Bogotá: Editorial El Gráfico, 1936).
[29] Jesús María Álvarez Gaviria and
María Teresa Uribe de Hincapié, Cien años de prensa en Colombia 1840-1940.
Catálogo indizado de la prensa existente en la Sala de Periódicos de la
Biblioteca Central de la Universidad de Antioquia, (Medellín,
Editorial Universidad de Antioquia, 2002).
[30]Delimiro Moreno, “Periódicos
Huilenses”, Huila. Órgano de la Academia
Huilense de Historia, no.
31 (1984): 75-79.
[31] Reynel Salas
Vargas, “Relación de periódicos editados en el
departamento del Huila. Existentes en la Hemeroteca Manuel del Socorro
Rodríguez de la Biblioteca Nacional”, Huila.
Órgano de la Academia Huilense de Historia, no.37 (1987):
85-87.
[32] Francisco Sánchez Ramírez, “Periodismo en el
Huila”, Huila. Órgano de la Academia
Huilense de Historia, no. 31 (1984): 68-74.
[33] Camilo
Francisco Salas
Ortiz, Historia del periodismo huilense: la prensa
escrita, (Neiva:
Instituto huilense de cultura, 1994); and
“Trayectoria del periodismo huilense”, in Bernardo Tovar
Zambrano, scientific director,
Historia general de Huila, t. 3, (Neiva:
Instituto huilense de cultura/ Fondo de autores huilenses/ Gobernación del
dpto. del Huila/ Academia Huilense, 2005): 97-146.
[34]Álvaro Trilleras Roa, Del linotipo al satélite. Los medios de comunicación y el periodismo
en el Huila, (Neiva:
Impresos Litosol, 2005),
18.
[35] Álvarez Gaviria and Uribe de Hincapié, Cien años de prensa en Colombia…131.
[36] In this decade, 19 out of the 30 newspapers that
circulated between 1850 and 1900 were published. Jean Paul Ruíz Martínez and
Cristian Salamanca Arévalo, “Prensa decimonónica de la ciudad de Neiva. Apuntes para su historia”, in
Bernardo Tovar
Zambrano, scientific director,
Historia
Comprehensiva de Neiva, t.2, (Neiva:
Alcaldía de Neiva/ Academia huilense de historia/Secretaría municipal de
cultura y turismo, 2013),411-443.
[37] In this decade, 19 out of the 30 newspapers that
circulated between 1850 and 1900 were published. It is calculated that there
were 30 newspapers in Neiva through the samples conserved in the Universidad
de Antioquia (UdeA, by its acronym in Spanish), the Luis
Ángel Arango Library (Blaa, by its acronym in Spanish) and the National Library of Colombia (BNC, by its acronym in Spanish). The compilation of these newspapers and of all the
ones published in Tolima during the 19th century can be consulted
in: “Colección de prensa del Tolima siglo XIX”, in Biblioteca digital. Prensa siglo XIX, Jean Paul Ruíz Martínez and
Cristian Salamanca Arévalo, researchers, (Bogotá.
Biblioteca Nacional de Colombia, 2012), available in:
http://www.bibliotecanacional.gov.co/content/prensa-tolimense-del-siglo-xix. The compilation was elaborated under the coordination
of Camilo Páez Jaramillo.
[38] For
information about Tolima’s Diocesis see: Cristian Salamanca Arévalo, “La iglesia en
Neiva. El papel eclesiástico en la organización socio- política durante el
siglo XIX”, in Bernardo Tovar
Zambrano, scientific director, Historia Comprehensiva de Neiva, t.2., (Neiva:
Alcaldía de Neiva/ Academia huilense de historia/Secretaría municipal de
cultura y turismo, 2013): 173-200.
[39] The newspapers
that were edited or printed
by Alejandro Rojas during the decade of the
1880s in the city of Neiva
are: El Vijilante
(1880), La Revista Judicial del Tolima (1880-1884),
La Estrella del Tolima(1882-1884), La Crónica Forense (1883), El Elector (1883), El Alto Magdalena (1884) and La
Grilla (1884).
[40]La Estrella del Tolima, Neiva,
13, 29th July, 1882.
[41]The hiring of Alejandro Rojas as president of the Municipal Corporation of Neiva
appears in issue 62 of La Estrella, where there
is also a posthumous tribute to Miguel María Duran G.
La Estrella del Tolima, Neiva, 8th July, 1883.
[42] For a further study on the civil wars in Neiva at the
end of the century, see: Jean Paul Ruíz Martínez, “Guerra y política en
la Neiva decimonónica. Fin de siglo y batalla de Matamundo”, in Bernardo Tovar
Zambrano, scientific director,
Historia Comprehensiva de Neiva, t.2., (Neiva:
Alcaldía de Neiva/ Academia huilense de historia/Secretaría municipal de
cultura y turismo, 2013): 517-536.
[43] The denomination
of La Estrella del
Tolima
as a semi-official newspaper appears in the protest letter
written by Clodomiro
Castillo to a pamphlet called La unión liberal en el Tolima y su
programa. In his claim, Castillo indicates that there was a time when there
existed the idea to retake arms in order to defend the liberal cause: “the
official position of the liberal party that believed itself to be compromised
by the promotion of Dr Nuñez to the Presidency, is a
fact that is in the consciousness of all Colombians whose impartiality is not
as intermittent and ailing as that of our accuser. And that the President of
Tolima knew of said purpose and did not resist it, this can be proven by the Gaceta Oficial and La
Estrella
(semi-official), in a loose page, from the official press, in which
war was proclaimed as the program of the liberal party and with the Message of
the President of the Assembly.” Clodomiro Castillo,
Rectificaciones a la hoja titulada “la
Unión liberal en el Tolima y su programa”, (Bogotá:
Imprenta la Luz, 1884),7. Remarks in bold letters made
by the authors.
[44]Memoria que el Secretario de Gobierno del
Tolima dirige al presidente del Estado para la Asamblea Legislativa de 1881, (Neiva:
Imprenta del Estado, 1881), 97.
[45] Memoria que el secretario de gobierno del
Tolima… 97.
[46] La Estrella del Tolima, Neiva, 20th May, 1883.
[47] Cacua, Historia del
periodismo colombiano… 74.
[48] Eduardo Posada
Carbó,
“Libertad, libertinaje, tiranía, 1863-1865”, in
Paula Alonso, Construcciones impresas. Panfletos, diarios
y revistas en la formación de los estados nacionales en América Latina,
1820-1920 (México:
Fondo de cultura económica, 2003), 197.
[49] “Judicial execution against the printing press of ‘El Tradicionista’ for the sum of $ 6,000 that infringed upon it for a
forced loan,” in Carlos Valderrama Andrade, El centenario de El Tradicionista. Datos
para la biografía de Miguel Antonio Caro, (Bogotá:
Instituto Caro y Cuervo, 1972), 55.
[50] “ Judicial execution against the printing press of ‘El Tradicionista’ … ”63.
[51] “Auctions for the payment of forced loans”, in Valderrama, El centenario de El Tradicionista… 67.
[52] “ Minutes of the Auction”, in
Valderrama, El
centenario de El Tradicionista… 70.
[53] “ Minutes of the Auction”, in
Valderrama, El
centenario de El Tradicionista… 70.
[54] “Expropriation of
‘El Tradicionista’. Memorial”, in
Valderrama, El
centenario de El Tradicionista … 72-74.
[55] “Expropriation of ‘El
Tradicionista’. Memorial”, in Valderrama,
El centenario de El Tradicionista… 76-77.
[56] Diario de Cundinamarca, Bogotá, 2nd June, 1877.
[57] Diario de Cundinamarca, Bogotá, 2nd June, 1877.
[58] La Estrella del Tolima, Neiva, 21st September, 1884.
[59] La Estrella del Tolima, Neiva,
6th May, 1882. .
[60] La Estrella del Tolima, Neiva,
6th May, 1882.
[61] They refer to Lazare Nicholas Marguerite
Carnot, who during the French Revolution was an active member of the committee
of public security, whose innovations in training, equipment and strategy were
a determining factor in the victory of the French armies in 1793. On Carnot,
see: David Eugene Smith, “Lazare
Nicholas Marguerite Carnot”, The
Scientific Monthly 37,
no. 2 (August, 1933): 188-189.
[62] La Estrella del Tolima, Neiva,
6th May, 1882.
[63] La Estrella del Tolima, Neiva,
6th May, 1882.
[64] La Estrella del Tolima, Neiva,
6th May, 1882.
[65]Park, Rafael Núñez and
the Politics…
[66] Park, Rafael Núñez and
the Politics… 306.
[67] Park, Rafael Núñez and
the Politics… 311.
[68] La República, Neiva, 3rd April, 1882.
[69] La República, Neiva, 19th June, 1882.
[70] La Estrella del Tolima, Neiva,
10th June, 1882.
[71] La Estrella del Tolima, Neiva,
24th June,1882.
[72] La Estrella del Tolima discusses the content of La Luz in the following issues: 1, 3, 6, 8, 9, 11, 12, 15, 27, 28, 29, 33, 34, among others. In them, the personalism of Nuñez is criticized..
[73] La Estrella del Tolima, Neiva,
22nd July, 1882.
[74] La Estrella del Tolima, Neiva,22nd July, 1882.
[75] He was president of the Sovereign State of Tolima in
1863 and provisory president of Tolima in 1867. José María Restrepo Sáenz, Gobernadores y Proceres de Neiva, (Bogotá: Editorial ABC, 1951), 356-358
[76] La Estrella del Tolima, Neiva,
12th August, 1882.
[77] La Estrella del Tolima, Neiva,
19th August, 1882.
[78] La Estrella del Tolima, Neiva,
26th November,
1882.
[79] The first one to be appointed was Rafael
Núñez. For that reason, he
had the first option to replace Zaldúa. However, he
expected Otálora to be loyal to independent
liberalism, and so he rejected the opportunity in order not to be held back
from his presidential aspiration for the following period that started in 1884.
[80] La Estrella del Tolima, Neiva,
7th January, 1883.
[81] La Estrella del Tolima,
Neiva, 29th July, 1883.
[82] Mejía,
Los Radicales... 582.
[83] La Estrella del Tolima,
Neiva, 10th September, 1884.
[84]
La Estrella del
Tolima, Neiva, 10th September , 1884.
[85] Mejía, Los Radicales... 596-597.
[86] La Estrella del Tolima, Neiva,
7th December, 1884.
[87] La Estrella del Tolima, Neiva,
22nd July, 1882.
[88] Some studies
on the Sovereign
State of Tolima: Delimiro Moreno, El Huila en el Siglo XIX, (Bogotá: Vargas editor, 1994) and Álvaro
Cuartas Coymat, Tolima Insurgente, (Bogotá: Pijao Editores, 1991).
[89] La Estrella del Tolima, Neiva,
31st December, 1882.
[90] La Estrella del Tolima, Neiva,
24th December, 1882.
[91] La Estrella del Tolima, Neiva,
11th February, 1883.
[92] Those who followed Clímaco Iriarte made use of El
Bien Público. Órgano de los intereses del partido
Liberal del Tolima, directed by Eusebio Castilla. It was a
publication in which the need to unite the Liberal Party around a figure with
the importance of Iriarte was put forward.
[93] Gabriel
González Gaitán was the governor of the
province of Neiva in 1853 and he was its representative in Congress; in 1879,
he was the secretary of government in
Tolima for Ignacio
Manrique Calderón and, later on, for Marcelo
Barrios, whom he had the aspiration to succeed. His followers
defended his candidacy in El Elector. Órgano del partido liberal
unionista del Tolima.
[94] Moreno,
El Huila en el siglo XIX… 168.
[95] La Estrella del Tolima, Neiva,
8th April, 1883; 15th April, 1883.
[96] La Estrella del Tolima, Neiva,
29th April, 1883.
[97] La Estrella del Tolima, Neiva,
6th May, 1883.
[98] “Gacetilla”,
La Estrella del Tolima, Neiva, 6th May, 1883.
[99] La Estrella del Tolima, Neiva,
6th May, 1883.
[100] La Estrella del Tolima, Neiva,
20th May,1883
[101] La Estrella del Tolima, Neiva,
27th May, 1883.
[102] La Estrella del Tolima, Neiva,
3rd June, 1883.
[103] Defensa de un Ciudadano, (Neiva:
Imprenta de A.P. 1883).
[104]
It refers to issue
55 of
La
Estrella,
published on 20th May, 1883.
[105] La Estrella del Tolima, Neiva,
20th May, 1883.
[106]
La Estrella del
Tolima, Neiva, 20th May,1883.
[107] Valentín Trujillo, Benito Salas, Timoleón
Cabrera, Ramón Manrique, Uldarico Scarpetta,
José Núñez, Heraclio Padilla, José M. Cuéllar, Emilio Cabrera and
Josué Tello.
[108] La Estrella del Tolima,
Neiva, 9th September, 1883.
[109] El Bien público, Neiva,
18th August, 1883.
[110] A los Habitantes del Estado,
(Neiva: Imprenta del Estado, 15th December, 1883).
[111] La Estrella del Tolima,
Neiva, 9th September, 1883.
[112] Un viejo liberal, (Neiva:
Imprenta de A.P. 16th October, 1883.) José María Pérez was the candidate of the independent liberals for the
presidency of the Sovereign State of Tolima in the period 1882-1883. He was defeated by the
radical Marcelo Barrios.
[113]Un
viejo liberal…
[114] La Unión Liberal en el
Tolima y su programa, Neiva, Imprenta de A. Rojas. 10th January, 1884.
[115] Rectificaciones a la hoja
titulada La Unión Liberal en el Tolima y su programa, (Bogotá:
La Luz, 1884).
[116] Rectificaciones a la hoja
titulada La Unión Liberal en el Tolima …7.
[117] La Estrella del Tolima, Neiva,
5th August, 1884.
[118] La Estrella del Tolima, Neiva,
5th August, 1884.