Mexico: The Taming of a Revolution. For, of all Enlightenment thinkers, Rousseau is typically considered to be somewhat of an outsider, even a pioneer of the Counter-Enlightenment. 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. Bolivar was decidedly on the abolitionist side, and this speaks very well of his moral character. During Simon Bolivar's address at the Congress of Angostura, in 1819, he argued for the freedom of the people of Latin America. 47, no. In the Angostura Address, he was clearly against it. Levenes thesis proposes that the Indies were actually kingdoms with the same legal standing as kingdoms in the Iberian Peninsula; the implication is that Bolivars struggle for independence was unjustified. hold on the North American continent five. What I propose is an office for which the candidates must prepare themselves, an office that demands great knowledge and the ability to acquire such knowledge. Castro-Klarn, S. 2003. 80: Communist Interference in El Salvador, and Response to Stories Published in the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post, U.S. Department of State and Alexander Haig (1981), Document #12: Testimonies of Guatemalan Women, Luz Alicia Herrera (1980), Chapter 5. Scanned by: J. S. Arkenberg, Dept. comments powered by In order to achieve this political goal, Bolivar proposes conventional republican institutions: Venezuelas government has always been republican, it is republican, and it should always remain so. 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. 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). DOI: http://doi.org/10.16993/iberoamericana.427, Andrade, G., & Lugo-Ocando, J. Yet, as previously mentioned, his 1826 Bolivian Constitution stipulated a ruler who was basically a king without a crown. Despite this, it was still an important event as Bolivar would communicate the basis of his political doctrine. He believes that The most perfect system of government is that which produces the greatest degree of happiness, of social security, and political stability (Bolivar 1819). This text is part of the Internet Modern History Sourcebook. 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. Simon Bolivar was one of the liberators in the time of the revolution in the northern part of South America. State Fullerton. Americans and the French, Bolvar led the. He prepared weeks in advance the speech delivered on February 15th, 2019, to delegates of the Congress. 2019 should definitely be a year of celebration, for the Angostura Address is a landmark political document. After he assumed full dictatorial powers in 1828, Bolivar severely limited various basic liberties, appealing to reasons of public morality. Simon Bolivar's message to the Congress of Agostura is explaining that the people of Venezuela should be free and not be ruled over by someon thousands of miles of way. Discurso del general Bolivar al Congreso de Angostura. The Congress of Angostura A Great Address and Campaigning in the Plains (1819) Congress did not meet until February 15, 1819, on account of the late arrival of some representatives. In the midst of the battles for independence, Bolvar summoned a congress in the city of Angostura to reassert New Granadas autonomy and to install a political system that he believed would be capable of sustaining a new republic. Ciudad Bolvar (Spanish pronunciation: [sjua olia]; Spanish for "Bolivar City"), formerly known as Angostura and St. Thomas de Guyana, is the capital of Venezuela's southeastern Bolvar State.It lies at the spot where the Orinoco River narrows to about 1 mile (1.6 km) in width, is the site of the first bridge across the river, and is a major riverport for the eastern regions of . To get his point across, Bolivar returns to the question of cultural identity in the Angostura Address, but adds an interesting remark about Spain: Let us bear in mind that our population is neither European nor North American, but are closer to a blend of Africa and America than they are to Europe, for even Spain herself is not strictly European due to its African blood, institutions and character (Bolivar 1819). In the context of early 19th Century Venezuela, this was a major accomplishment. In this regard, Bolivar very much anticipates Tocquevilles analysis in Democracy in America. 2015. Predictably, many of these celebrations were carried out without sufficiently critical and objective approach towards historical data. The Angostura Address 200 Years Later: A Critical Reading. At least theoretically, this would ensure that criollos would no longer be second class citizens. If he attempts to infringe upon the law, his own ministers will desert him, thereby isolating him from the Republic, and they will even bring charges against him in the Senate. Download date: August 25th, 2018. The Jamaica Letter is mostly about Bolivars attempt to justify his struggle for American independence. of History, Cal. He is directly subject to the legislative body, the senate, and the people: he is the one man who resists the combined pressure of the opinions, interests, and passions of the social state and who, as Carnot states, does little more than struggle constantly with the urge to dominate and the desire to escape domination. Framing Pan-Americanism: Simn Bolvars Findings. CR: The New Centennial Review. Under the flags of freedom: slave soldiers and the wars of independence in Spanish South America. Surely, the best homage we may render to Bolivar on occasion of the 200th anniversary of his Angostura Address, is to critically engage with his work, objectively describe his views, and present him as he truly was: a great man, but not a demigod. Download date: August 25th, 2018. If a people, perverted by their training, succeed in achieving their liberty, they will soon lose it, for it would be of no avail to endeavor to explain to them that happiness consists in the practice of virtue; that the rule of law is more powerful than the rule of tyrants, because, as the laws are more inflexible, every one should submit to their beneficent austerity; that proper morals, and not force, are the bases of law; and that to practice justice is to practice liberty. But, it was not a mere cynical ploy to enlarge his armies. 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. Contemporary anti-colonialists place much emphasis on the acknowledgement of cultural diversity, and Bolivar certainly took it into account when deciding what the best political path for a nation is. The ruling bureaucracy of Oriental despotism: A phenomenon that paralyzed Marx. The Review of Politics, 15(3): 350359. It is certainly the case that, during Habsburg times (the dynasty before the arrival of the Bourbons), the Indies were not colonies in the modern sense. In modern times, he sought the protection of the British empire; in referring to ancient times, he consistently showed admiration for Roman imperialism, and had no words of criticism for it, as once again expressed in the Angostura Address: A monstrous and purely warlike government raised Rome to the highest pitch of virtue and glory, and made the whole world a Roman Empire, showing men just how much can be achieved by political virtue, and how trivial the influence of institutions can be (Bolivar 1819). The first is very wisely constituted. 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. Once again, he was inspired by his upbringing of admiration for Classical Antiquity: I have dared to suggest a moral power, drawn from the remote ages of antiquity and those obsolete laws, which for some time maintained public virtue amongst the Greeks and Romans (Bolivar 1819). Bolivar must have been aware that his liberal and enlightened audience would object to his proposal, inasmuch as it reminded them too much of the old Spanish imperial regime and its inegalitarian institutions. In that Constitution, it was made clear that Spain would have equal citizens on both sides of the Atlantic. Hence, many expect that the 2019 will again be a year of nationalist unexamined joy, celebrating the Angostura Address. New York: Springer. Yale University Press. It is unlikely that any liberal concessions from Spain would have changed his mind, but the fact that these concessions were very incomplete, and that they were ultimately abolished by Ferdinand VII, sealed in his mind the question regarding the break with Spain. State Fullerton. An address of Bolivar at the Congress of Angostura (February 15, 1819) Reprint ordered by the government of the United States of Venezuela, to commemorate the centennial of the opening of the Congress (tr. Angostura (plant), a genus in the family Rutaceae. Predictably, very much as Bolivar did in 1828, watching over public morality in the Bolivarian Revolution became despotic in itself, and many of Venezuelas basic freedoms (but most especially freedom of speech; Venezuela currently occupies number 143, as indexed by Reporters Without Borders (2018)) have deteriorated over the last 18 years. Breaking up with TINA? However, a very strong point of contention in the Cadiz Cortes, was the demographic balance in the representation of deputies. From: Simn Bolvar, An Address of Bolivar at the Congress of Angostura (February 15, 1819), Reprint Ed., (Washington, D.C.: Press of B. S. Adams, 1919), passim. However, given that the rest of Venezuela was still controlled by Spanish authorities, only a few provinces could send delegates. Throughout many of his private writings, Bolivar expressed enormous concerns about pardocracia, the takeover by pardos. Across his address, Bolvar 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. This question becomes even more important as it was central to the separatist movement against the Great Colombia that finally overthrew him and led to his exile and ultimate death in solitude. 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). 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. 1. Said, E. 2006. 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). Proyecto de Constitucion para la Republica de Bolivia y discurso del Libertador al Congreso Constituyente de Bolivia. And, at times, he seems to believe that, the new nations are not sufficiently mature to be wholly free: Liberty, says Rousseau, is a succulent food, but difficult to digest. Bolivar spoke, expressing his ideas regarding freedom. http://www.redalyc.org/pdf/267/26702702.pdf. The Congress ultimately decided not to pursue two of Bolivars most controversial proposals in the Angostura Address: a moral power, and a hereditary senate. Andrade G, Lugo-Ocando J. Considerations on France. Retrieved from: http://www.archivodellibertador.gob.ve/escritos/buscador/spip.php?article10971. But, he believed that federalism was not suited for the political culture of Spanish America, Indeed, this is the main thesis of his Cartagena Manifesto, in which he places most of the blame for the collapse of Venezuelas First Republic, on federalism. In the Angostura Address, Bolivar engages in some confusing argumentation trying to justify the concentration of power in the executive branch of government: In a republic, the executive ought to be the strongest, because everything conspires against it; and on the other hand in a monarchy the legislative ought to be the most powerful, as everything unites in favor of the sovereign (Bolivar 1819). Bolivar was fully aware that whoever takes on the responsibility of demolishing an ancient order, must also immediately come up with ideas for a new one. In it, from this moment, national sovereignty is centred. For, his intellectual and political legacy is a mixed bag. ; I am even aware, thanks to Montesquieu, that one can be a Persian. Liberty has been its cradle, it has grown up in liberty, and it is maintained by pure liberty. Strategies for Economic Development, Moments and Events in Latin American Economic Development, Document #35: Testimony before Congress on the Goals of NAFTA and Preliminary Evaluation, C. Fred Bergsten (1997), Document #36: NAFTA Equals Death, Say Peasant Farmers, Diego Cevalos (2002), Chapter 13. This supreme authority must be perpetual (Bolivar 1819). Bolivar makes a sophistic gap that leaves careful readers perplexed. Central America: Within the U.S. Orbit, Timeline for Central America, 1502-Present, Central American Profiles and Personalities, Forced Disappearance and Impunity in El Jute, Guatemala, Document #9: Introduction to the Shark and the Sardines, Juan Jos Arvalo (1956), Document #10: Acceptance and Nobel Lecture, Rigoberta Mench (1992), Document #11: Special Report No. Yet, it is very revealing that, in this and other passages, he has a predilection for Rousseau. ), The Works of Joseph de Maistre. 7482. After Spains humiliating defeat in the Seven Years War, Charles III understood the necessity to cleanse the corrupt and inefficient administration of the Spanish Empire. In his view, federalism may work in some countries, but not in all. Our piece is an opportunity to challenge future attempts by the Venezuelan government with its self-proclaimed Bolivarian Revolution- to expand the uncritical hero-worship of Simon Bolivars memory as an instrument of self-national aggrandizement.1. By 1819, Bolivar fully understood that he would not succeed without their support. Iberoamericana Nordic Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies, 47(1), 7482. 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. Poltica y cultura, 27: 929. 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. They justified themselves by arguing that they were just agents of a greater historical force. Independence would, nevertheless, prove to be no easy task. This logic is very hard to follow. Again, Bolivar does not make it sufficiently clear. We have been ruled more by deceit than by force, and we have been degraded more by vice than by superstition. Cuba: Key Colony, Socialist State, From Haciendas to the Peal of the Antilles, The Island of Cuba, Alexander von Humboldt (1856), Through Afro-America, William Archer (1910), Document #13: Montecristi Manifesto, by Jos Mart and Mximo Gmez (1895), Document #14: My Race, Jose Mart (1893), Document #15: History Will Absolve Me, by Fidel Castro (1953), Document #17: What is Cubas Sin?, Fidel Castro (2003), Document #16: Statement from Mexico City, Juana Castro (1964), Chapter 6. What republic has exceeded in duration those of Sparta and Venice? The executive power, consisting of two consuls, had the same flaw as Sparta. 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. . But then, mysteriously, Bolivar argues that those very advantages are a good reason why a republican president should be endowed with greater power than a constitutional prince (Bolivar 1819). Yet, in 1999, Venezuelas constituents did uphold Bolivars original proposal, in a new Constitution. Be as it may, however, the Constitution of Bolivia of 1826 proved to be his outdoing. 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. Yet notwithstanding this deformity, the Roman Republic did not suffer from the disastrous discord which might be expected from a leadership consisting of two individuals, both endowed with a monarchs powers (Bolivar 1819). Retrieved from: https://es.wikisource.org/wiki/Carta_de_Bol%C3%ADvar_al_general_Juan_Jos%C3%A9_Flores_(1830). Iberoamericana Nordic Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies 47, no. 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