The Angostura Address 200 Years Later: A Critical Reading. The morality of slavery was by no means a settled debate during the time of the Angostura Address. By the end of his life, Bolivar was a deeply disappointed and bitter man who wrote to a friend: All who served the Revolution have plowed the sea (Bolivar 1830). Bolivar had much admiration for Montesquieu, but in presenting his proposals for political organization, in the Angostura Address he added a fourth power to the three traditional ones (executive, legislative and judicial); the so-called moral power. In the Angostura Address, he was clearly against it. Maistre, J. Breaking up with TINA? Criollos would know be second-class citizens. Iberoamericana Nordic Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies 47, no. I do not solicit the establishment of a nobility, for as a celebrated republican has said, that would simultaneously destroy equality and liberty. Bolivar, S. 1826. Simn Bolvar, "An Address of Bolvar at the Congress of Angostura (February 15, 1819)" Background As a young man, Simn Bolvar (1783-1830), who would become known as "El Libertador" ("The Liberator") in Latin America, spent a few years in Europe. Once again, Bolivar had to flee. Throughout his post-colonial critique of Orientalists, Edward Said (2006) has documented how 19th Century Western scholars portrayed the East as some sort of mysterious place ruled by despots, mainly as a way to contrast the virtues of Western Enlightenment. El caudillismo en Amrica Latina, ayer y hoy. He also publicly proclaimed the emancipation of slaves in Carupano, in 1816. Bolivars choice of despotic governments, once again, reveals that he was a man of his time. Proyecto de Constitucion para la Republica de Bolivia y discurso del Libertador al Congreso Constituyente de Bolivia. In 1829, in the mist of continuous crises of legitimacy, some of Bolivars loyalists in Bogota proposed to establish a monarchy, with Bolivar as king, although his title would be Liberator; he would then have a European prince as successor (Lynch 2010: 263). Bolivar makes a sophistic gap that leaves careful readers perplexed. But, even when it came to the American government, Bolivar had high praises for it in the Angostura Address: And in fact, the example of the United States, with its progressive prosperity, was too flattering not to have been followed. Document #41: "Address at a White House Reception for Members of Congress and for the Diplomatic Corps of the Latin American Republics," John F. Kennedy (1961) Discussion Questions; Further Reading; Chapter 16. However, it would be a mistake to think that it was only after the independence that he became aware of this. Argentina: Progress, Stalemate, Discord, Understanding Argentinas Dirty War Through Memoir, The Challenge of Burying the Ley de Caducidad in Uruguay, The Spanish-American Republics, Theodore Child (1891), Document #24: What is Peronism? by Juan Domingo Pern (1948) || The Twenty Truths of the Pernist Justicialism, Juan Domingo Pern (1950), Document #25: Statement by the military upon taking power (1976), Document #26: Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, Adolfo Prez Esquivel (1980), Document #27: Speech at a Dinner with the Council of Americas in New York, Nstor Kirchner (2006), Chapter 10. Carrera Damas, G. 2003. That is the goal of this article. The facts that the year 2019 will mark the 200th anniversary of Bolivars Angostura Address, is perhaps a neat opportunity to correct this and perhaps fill some of the gaps of a story that in the light of the Venezuelas crisis of today has become ever so more relevant in our days. But, as for Man, I declare that I have never met him in my life. Chodor, T. 2014. Prof. Arkenberg has modernized the text. But, it still reflects Bolivars anti-colonial convictions, inasmuch as unlike most figures of the Spanish Enlightenment, he was not embarrassed of having African roots. Por que no soy bolivariano. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/2515360. State Fullerton. To a certain extent, this implied moving away from its African roots, and some authors made it explicit that, in order to be more civilized, Spain should be less African (Shubert 1999: 2). They went from being controlled by oversea nations to being independent nations. The Congress ultimately decided not to pursue two of Bolivars most controversial proposals in the Angostura Address: a moral power, and a hereditary senate. Starting in 1999, Bolivars image was politically used by Hugo Chavezs leftist revolution, and ever since, leftist governments and guerrillas (especially FARC in Colombia) throughout the region have claimed to be followers of Bolivarian thinking. Retreived from: https://rsf.org/en/ranking. But, it was not a mere cynical ploy to enlarge his armies. Despite their genuine admiration for Bolivar, constituents understood that Bolivars argumentation in favor of hereditary principles of political power was very weak (not to say confusing), and that an institution imitating the British House of Lords would be nothing but a setback to old aristocratic times. Las Indias no eran colonias. Therefore, let the entire system of government be strengthened, and let the balance of power be drawn up in such a manner that it will be permanent and incapable of decay because of its own tenuity. A republican magistrate is an individual set apart from society, charged with checking the impulse of the people toward license and the propensity of judges and administrators toward abuse of the laws. Neoliberal Hegemony and the Pink Tide in Latin America. Andrade, G. and Lugo-Ocando, J., 2018. There are some accounts that suggest instead that Bolivar may have been genuinely concerned with perpetual dictators at first (Harwich 2001). This bring us to one of our key questions: Had Bolivar already planned to be a perpetual dictator by 1819 and was the Angostura Address paying mere lip service to the principle of alterability in power? The Congress of Angostura was convened by Simn Bolvar and took place in Angostura during the wars of Independence of Colombia and Venezuela, culminating in the proclamation of the Republic of Colombia . Bolivar was not really greatly concerned with these events in Spain. Across his address, Bolvar Mine is done. DOI: http://doi.org/10.16993/iberoamericana.427, Andrade, G., & Lugo-Ocando, J. The ruling bureaucracy of Oriental despotism: A phenomenon that paralyzed Marx. The Review of Politics, 15(3): 350359. Madrid: Espasa Calpe. Levenes thesis is only half true. Nothing in our fundamental laws would have to be altered were we to adopt a legislative power similar to that held by the British Parliament. Yet, there were still notable Spanish Enlightenment figures (Jovellanos, Mayans, Olavide, amongst others). Bolivars authoritarian turn came later in his political career, well after independence was sealed. Congress of Angostura, an 1819-1821 legislative body of Gran Colombia. He thus anticipated these objections, by trying to assure the audience that a hereditary Senate would not be aristocratic: In no manner whatever would the creation of a hereditary senate be a violation of political equality; it is not a nobility I wish to establish, because that, as has been said by a celebrated republican, would be to destroy at once equality and liberty. Mexico: The Taming of a Revolution, Travels and Adventures, William Carpenter (1851), A Mexican Journey, E.H. Blichfeldt (1912), Document #3: President Diaz: Hero of the Americas, James Creelman (1908), Document #4: Plan de San Luis de Potos, Francisco Madero (1910), Document #5: Program of the Liberal Party, Ricardo Flores Magn (1911), Document #6: Plan de Ayala, Emiliano Zapata (1911), Document #7: Speech to the Nation, Lzaro Crdenas (1938), Document #8: First Declaration from the Lacandon Jungle, Today We Say Enough is Enough! (Ya Basta! He appeals to the idea of a modern state of equality by claiming that "slavery is the daughter of darkness: an ignorant people is a blind instrument of its own destruction" (Boli var). Did not monarchy exist in France for fourteen centuries? Unlike Jose de San Martin (who explicitly desired a Constitutional Monarchy for emerging South American nations), he constantly paid lip service to the toppling of monarchs. Caracas: Alfa. Addressing the Congress of Angostura, 1819 [Bolvar addresses the Congress of Angostura. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: University of Pittsburgh Press. After some military action in New Grenada (modern-day Colombia), Bolivar returned to Venezuela in 1812 and after a remarkable series of military triumphs he managed to recapture the capital Caracas (Lopez and Lopez 1999). Scanned by J. S. Arkenberg, Dept. Unfortunately, again, Bolivars reasoning is very confusing; as every critic of the House of Lords or any other hereditary office reminds us, such an institution is precisely the foundation for a nobility. Amrica Latina 4. In a sense, Bolivars approach is anti-colonial (let us remember that many aspects of colonialism itself were modeled on the universalism of the Enlightenment), inasmuch as he advises colonized peoples not to necessarily copy Eurocentric models. Similar attempts to debunk myth from reality have not been able to play out in the ways that these efforts were originally intended such as the 2015s 200-year commemoration of Bolivars Jamaica Letter. Washington. Poltica y cultura, 27: 929. Iberoamericana Nordic Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies, 47(1), 7482. There, he 1826. Retrieved from: https://www.ensayistas.org/antologia/XIXA/bolivar/bolivia.htm. Our weak and feeble fellow citizens will have to increase in strength of mind in a very great degree, before they can be permitted to digest freedoms wholesome food (Bolivar 1819). DOI: http://doi.org/10.16993/iberoamericana.427, Andrade, Gabriel, and Jairo Lugo-Ocando. Death and Money in the Afternoon: A History of the Spanish Bullfight. But, the Bourbons, and especially Charles III, embraced a program of enlightened despotism and absolutism that by 1810, had fully converted the Indies into colonies. The address is presented in Spanish with a short editorial introduction in English. Blanchard, P. 2008. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022216X03006849. The will of the Grand Sultan, the Khan, the Bey, and other despotic sovereigns, is the supreme law, and it is arbitrarily executed by the pashas and inferior governors in Turkey and Persia, where the system of oppression is completely organized, and is submitted to by the people because of the authority from which it emanates. June 13, 1821. Latin America in the World Arena, 1990s - Present. The address is presented in Spanish with a short editorial introduction in English. Chile: Repression and Democracy, A Voyage from the United States to South America, Thomas Bennett (1821), Document #28: Final Speech, Salvador Allende (1973), Document #29: Military Decrees on Seizing Power, Augusto Pinochet (1973), Document #30: Inaugural Address, Michelle Bachelet (2006), A Romanticism of Slavery and the Plantation Economy, Casa Grande e Senzala and the Formation of a New Brazilian Identity, Amnesty, Amnesia, and Moral Reparations in Brazil, Exploracin oficial por la primera vez desde el norte de la America del SurViaje a Rio de Janeiro, Francisco Michelena y Rojas (1867), Document #31: On Slavery in Brazil, Thomas Ewbank (1856), Document #32: State Department Telegram to Ambassador Lincoln Gordon (1964), Document #33: Letter to Pope Paul VI, Marcos Sattamini Pena de Arruda (1971), Document #34: Speech of the President of the Republic in the ceremony installing the Truth Commission, Dilma Rousseff (2012), Chapter 12. Wittfogel, K. 1953. Indeed, despite his strong criticisms of Spanish imperialism he seemed to acknowledge that Spanish rule offered an important degree of stability and unity while independence could bring instead disunity and possible chaos amongst the emerging nations: The separation of America from the Spanish Monarchy resembles the state of the Roman Empire, when that enormous structure fell to pieces in the midst of the ancient world (Bolivar 1819). But in truth, for most of the 20th Century, Bolivar was more frequently an icon of authoritarian right-wing military Latin American governments, who quite openly opposed democratic institutions. Comercio libre meant that various Spanish ports could trade with the Indies; however, the Indies could not trade with any other country. Mindlessly appropriating the constitutions of other nations, he argued, would lead to Gran Colombias demise. This style seemed to serve a very specific purpose as by 1819, Bolivar was keen to present himself as a humble citizen that, only reluctantly, takes hold of power, not out of personal ambition, but because of some historical metaphysical necessity. Tocqueville, A. It would be even more difficult for the laws of North America to be adopted in Venezuela. He would lead them cross the Andes chain of mountains in modern-day Colombia towards a surprise attack on the capital, Bogota. However, this juncture would be rapidly embraced by radicals as an opportunity to proclaim independence from Spain in 1811 under the argument that they would not bow to an illegitimate French King. He was moved towards abolitionism by Haitian President Alexandre Petion, who offered him military support in exchange of the attempt to abolish slavery from liberated territories. Give Venezuela such an executive power in the person of a president chosen by the people or their representatives, and you will have taken a great step toward national happiness. One of the main thesis of that classic work of political philosophy, is that American democracy is not only built on a particular form of government and its institutions, but also on the cultural foundations of Americans (Tocqueville 2004). These subordinate officers are entrusted with the civil, military, and political administration, the collection of duties and the protection of religion. The Bourbons had a clear mercantilist economic program: the Indies were to be ruled only for the benefit of the mother country, Spain (Annino 2015). During Habsburg times, a great deal of contraband went on, but with the arrival of the Bourbons, economic regulations were severely tightened and enforced. Summary of H.R.541 - 118th Congress (2023-2024): BALE Act of 2023 In the context of early 19th Century Venezuela, this was a major accomplishment. ), EZLN Command (1993), Chapter 4. As he explains it in the Angostura Address: In absolute governments there are no limits to the authority of public functionaries. Paredes Muante, J. Hence, many expect that the 2019 will again be a year of nationalist unexamined joy, celebrating the Angostura Address. 2018 Freedom of Speech Index. It is an office for which candidates ought to be prepared, as a senator needs much wisdom and the right faculties to acquire knowledge (Bolivar 1819). But, his concern was, if not legitimate, then at least understandable. But, in the Angostura Address, he clearly mistrusts democracy, as it seems to cripple the strength of a nation: But what democratic government was ever able to unite power, prosperity and permanency at the same time? 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