Unfortunately, the Bolivar-hero cult rampant in Venezuela and Colombia (and to a lesser extent in. DOI: http://doi.org/10.16993/iberoamericana.427, Andrade G and Lugo-Ocando J, The Angostura Address 200 Years Later: A Critical Reading (2018) 47 Iberoamericana Nordic Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies 74 DOI: http://doi.org/10.16993/iberoamericana.427, Andrade, Gabriel, and Jairo Lugo-Ocando. The opportunity came in 1808 when Napoleon invaded Spain, and the Caracas junta which became the facto government- rejected Spanish authority in Seville in 1810, and reaffirmed its allegiance to Ferdinand VII, who was imprisoned by Napoleon. And it is for this very reason that Bolivar believes that federalism works in North America, but it would never work in South America. 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. Almost immediately, Bolivar had to confront a revolt lead by Juan Domingo de Monteverde y Rivas (17731832) and Jos Toms Boves (17821814), who lured black slaves, mulatos and indigenous people to swore allegiance to the legitimate Spanish King who by then had been re-stated to the Crown. Originally published in 1923, as part of the Cambridge Plain Texts series, this volume contains the complete text of Simn Bolvar's address before the Venezuelan Congress at Angostura on February 15, 1819. Angostura bark, a spice made from the bark of the tree Angostura trifoliata. This is an understandable and legitimate point. () Legislators! Bolivar acknowledged that federal forms of government were theoretically virtuous, and that democratic systems of checks and balances were to be emulated. Once again, Bolivar had to flee. This speech, now known as the Angostura Address, is a prime document in the Bolivarian canon. 2018;47(1):74-82. It would be even more difficult for the laws of North America to be adopted in Venezuela. He first settled in Jamaica, and then in Haiti. ; I am even aware, thanks to Montesquieu, that one can be a Persian. Congress of Angostura, an 1819-1821 legislative body of Gran Colombia. Por que no soy bolivariano. Bolivar was a great man of action and an important thinker, but he was still flawed in many regards. Venezuela: The Perils of Prosperity, Document #23: Address to the United Nations, Hugo Chvez (2006), Document #22: Pact of Punto Fijo, Accin Democrtica, COPEI and Unin Republicana Democrtica (1958), Chapter 9. As with any leader who faces the dichotomy between utopias and realities, Bolivar had some profound ideological transformations throughout his political and military career. 2019 should definitely be a year of celebration, for the Angostura Address is a landmark political document. Venezuelans were by no means unanimous in their desire to be independent and consequently a bloody civil war began. At least theoretically, this would ensure that criollos would no longer be second class citizens. Bolivar never really says. Iberoamericana Nordic Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies. 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). The congress of the Republic of Venezuela is installed. Paredes Muante, J. He prepared weeks in advance the speech delivered on February 15th, 2019, to delegates of the Congress. 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. Lynch, J. Bolivar, S. 1819. This argument is hard to follow. State Fullerton. Pablo Morillo and Venezuela, 18151820. 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). It should be strongly proportioned to meet the resistance, which the executive must expect from the legislature, from the judiciary, and from the people of a republic. Caracas: Alfa. Even Benito Mussolini was an admirer of Bolivar (Caballero 2006: 72). DOI: http://doi.org/10.16993/iberoamericana.427, Andrade, Gabriel, and Jairo Lugo-Ocando. As early as 1805 (when he made his famous oath of American independence in Romes Monte Sacro), he was already determined to fight for American independence. Bolivar was not really greatly concerned with these events in Spain. They justified themselves by arguing that they were just agents of a greater historical force. Let us start by saying that by 1819, Simon Bolivar was a very uncertain man who had lived till then a hectic life. Sparta, of course, is the emblem of militarism in Western imagination. His "Angostura Address of 1819" is much more than just a regular speech that any politician would make throughout the course of their career. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0034670500001534, Andrade, G. and Lugo-Ocando, J., 2018. House of Angostura, a Trinidad and Tobago company manufacturing angostura bitters. The infamous slogan, se acata pero no se cunple (laws are obeyed, but not enforced), became a common standard of criollo administration. Government posts were bought and sold, thus being filled by grossly incompetent administrators. Simon Bolvar's 1819 address to the Congress of Angostura took place in Venezuela during the long course of the struggle for independence. 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. Bushnell, D. 2003. Predictably, many of these celebrations were carried out without sufficiently critical and objective approach towards historical data. Mine is done. Yet, Bolivars point is that Spanish imperialism is even worse than Oriental despotism, inasmuch as the control exercised by the Spanish Crown is even tighter than in Eastern societies. In imitation of the British House of Lords, Bolivar proposed a hereditary Senate. The Congress ultimately decided not to pursue two of Bolivars most controversial proposals in the Angostura Address: a moral power, and a hereditary senate. Unless the executive has easy access to all the administrative resources, fixed by a just distribution of powers, he inevitably becomes a nonentity or abuses his authority. 2015. He was a high-spirited revolutionary, but he understood the dangers of uncontrolled rage and racial vengeance. After he assumed full dictatorial powers in 1828, Bolivar severely limited various basic liberties, appealing to reasons of public morality. Devoted to the government because of a natural interest in its own preservation, a hereditary senate would always oppose any attempt on the part of the people to infringe upon the jurisdiction and authority of their magistrates . Iberoamericana Nordic Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies 47, no. The Jamaica Letter is mostly about Bolivars attempt to justify his struggle for American independence. Of course, it would be fallacious to accuse Bolivar of being authoritarian, just because he had authoritarian sympathizers. Bolvar had the objective of emerging a plan of governance as he lays out his understanding of the independence movement and his belief on how the future of Latin American nations should be legally structured. The Congress would lay down the political foundation for the Third Republic. Framing Pan-Americanism: Simn Bolvars Findings. CR: The New Centennial Review. Do we not read in Montesquieus Spirit of the Laws that laws should be suited to the people making them, and that it is extremely unlikely that the laws of our nation will suit another? (Bolivar 1819). This time he understood that he could not make a frontal assault on Caracas, so he decided to begin a campaign of guerrilla warfare in the Eastern and Southern region of Guayana, in Venezuela, via the Orinoco River. 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. 1826. A strongly rooted force can only correct this weakness. During the Second National Congress of Angostura on February 15, 1819 Bolivar stood and gave an address that would form its own place in history. In China they do not send for their mandarins, military, and literati to the country of Genghis Khan, who conquered them, even though the present race of Chinese are direct descendants of the tribes subjugated by the ancestors of the present Tartars. Under Jose de Galvezs (17201787) recommendation (after an administrative visit to the Indies), posts high in the military and civil hierarchy (including ecclesiastical appointments) ruling American affairs, would no longer be occupied by people born in Spanish America, but rather, by administrators born in Spain, i.e., the peninsulares. 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). Nevertheless, his main concern was not so much with absolutism itself, but rather, with the exclusion of criollos in the administration of the Spanish Empire. Madrid: Planeta. . He genuinely emancipated slaves, yet was extremely afraid of a takeover by pardos and all the savage hordes from Africa and America who roam like wild deer in the wilderness of Colombia (Bolivar 1821). Who could resist the glorious attraction of the full and absolute enjoyment of sovereignty, independence, and liberty? After all, despite his authoritarian inclinations, Bolivar was a man of the Enlightenment, and it is safe to say that he would have been happy with open, frank and critical discussion of ideas, not mindless nationalistic worship. However, it would be a mistake to think that it was only after the independence that he became aware of this. Bolivars choice of despotic governments, once again, reveals that he was a man of his time. What government is more ancient than that of China? And liberty weeks in advance the speech delivered on February 15th, 2019, to delegates of the Angostura... 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