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). 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. The congress of the Republic of Venezuela is installed. 2004. Bushnell, D. 2003. Europeans still perceived Spain more as an African country, as in Alexandre Dumas (himself of African descent) apocryphal observation: Africa begins at the Pyrenees (Altaschul 2012: 11), and Enlightened Spaniards tried hard to overcome that. Americans and the French, Bolvar led the. Pablo Morillo and Venezuela, 18151820. But, regardless of the effectiveness of this form of government with respect to North America, I must say that it has never for a moment entered my mind to compare the position and character of two states as dissimilar as the English-American and the Spanish-American. Liberty has been its cradle, it has grown up in liberty, and it is maintained by pure liberty. The Congress would lay down the political foundation for the Third Republic. An Address of Bolvar at the Congress of Angostura (February 15, 1819). New York: Springer. In an oft-quoted passage of the Angostura Address, he argues: The continuation of authority in the same individual has frequently proved the ruin of democratic governments. 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. Thus our position is most extraordinary and complicated. It enjoys all its proper functions, and it requires no essential revision, because the Constitution, in creating it, gave it the form and powers which the people deemed necessary in order that they might be legally and properly represented. Paredes Muante, J. Bolvar, Simn. () Legislators! These subordinate officers are entrusted with the civil, military, and political administration, the collection of duties and the protection of religion. But, admittedly, it had turned out to be very corrupt. Retrieved from: http://www.archivodellibertador.gob.ve/escritos/buscador/spip.php?article10971. Said, E. 2006. 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. While the courts and judges are dependent on the executive power, the laws originate in and are made by Parliament. 2018. Considerations on France. 1 (2018): 7482. Timeline for Colonial Latin America, 1492-1824, Colonial Latin American Profiles and Personalities, Moments and Events in Late Colonial Latin America, Analysis of Arthur Syzks Bolvar and Sucre at Junin, oil on canvas (1950), Simn Bolvar and Restrained Republicanism, Document #1: Letter from Jamaica, Simn Bolvar (1815), Document #2: Address at the Congress of Angostura, Simn Bolvar (1819), Chapter 3. A big point of contention between Enlightenment thinkers and their Counter-Enlightenment foes, was about universalism. State Fullerton. The population in the Americas was far greater than the population in the Iberian Peninsula, yet, only a minority of deputies posts were assigned to representatives of the American territories. 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). El proceso ideolgico de la emancipacin en Colombia. Sponsor: Rep. Smith, Christopher H. [R-NJ-4] (Introduced 02/24/2023) Committees: House - Foreign Affairs; Judiciary: Committee Meetings: 02/28/23 2:00PM: Latest Action: House - 02/24/2023 Referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and in addition to the Committee on the Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as . Ambition and intrigue abuses the credulity and experience of men lacking all political, economic, and civic knowledge; they adopt pure illusion as reality; they take license for liberty, treachery for patriotism, and vengeance for justice. 1974. New York: McMillan. 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). 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? DOI: http://doi.org/10.16993/iberoamericana.427, 1. Even Benito Mussolini was an admirer of Bolivar (Caballero 2006: 72). Iberoamericana Nordic Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies. Indeed, he was, but even more so from an intellectual point of view. Madrid: Espasa Calpe. The United States had just solidified their. He stated that government should work in favor of the people because they are all "American by birth and European by law", and that they should have the same rights as the other Europeans. We have been ruled more by deceit than by force, and we have been degraded more by vice than by superstition. And it is for this very reason that Bolivar believes that federalism works in North America, but it would never work in South America. Again, Bolivar never answers. 2015. This may not seem groundbreaking today, but in 1819, it was. 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). 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. 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. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022216X03006849. What state is more powerful than Great Britain? Needless to say, Bolivar hoped to become precisely a perpetual figurehead in the politics of the region and went to describe the role as follows: The President of the Republic comes to be in our Constitution, as the Sun that, firm in the center, gives life to the Universe. Sparta, of course, is the emblem of militarism in Western imagination. In most cases, these celebrations served the political purpose of legitimating the parties in power that organized the festivities and appropriating nationalists sentiments that could help boost popular support. The Congress ultimately decided not to pursue two of Bolivars most controversial proposals in the Angostura Address: a moral power, and a hereditary senate. The ministers, being responsible for any transgressions committed, will actually govern, since they must account for their actions. Bolivar spoke, expressing his ideas regarding freedom. 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). The morality of slavery was by no means a settled debate during the time of the Angostura Address. Castro-Klarn, S. 2003. 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. Amrica Latina 4. 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). He was a spirited combatant of monarchies, yet he insisted on being president for life (i.e., a king without a crown). DOI: http://doi.org/10.16993/iberoamericana.427, Andrade, Gabriel, and Jairo Lugo-Ocando. Bolivar, once again, was a man of the Enlightenment, but on this dispute, he seemed to be more on the side of Counter-Enlightenment figures who believed that the same political recipe could not be applied universally to all nations. 2018 Freedom of Speech Index. 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. Damas, G. 1983. There was no exact distribution of power there. In the context of early 19th Century Venezuela, this was a major accomplishment. ), The Works of Joseph de Maistre. How, exactly, does the potential for abuse in a monarchy justify the expansion of executive power in a republic? Bolivar was deeply influenced by the Enlightenment thinkers. After he assumed full dictatorial powers in 1828, Bolivar severely limited various basic liberties, appealing to reasons of public morality. Be as it may, however, the Constitution of Bolivia of 1826 proved to be his outdoing. Consuls, senate and people all served also as legislators, magistrates and judges. He prepared weeks in advance the speech delivered on February 15th, 2019, to delegates of the Congress. These leaders assumed the role of dictators while rhetorically expressing their reluctance to do so. Thanks to these achievements he would then be invited by the Peruvian authorities to organize the military campaign against the remaining Spanish and loyalist forces in Peru and Upper Peru (modern-day Bolivia), thus completing the final defeat of the Spanish Empire in South America. Democracy in America. 2019 should definitely be a year of celebration, for the Angostura Address is a landmark political document. We are controlled by a system which deprives us of the rights to which we are entitled, and leaves us in a sort of permanent infancy with respect to public affairs (Bolivar 1819). DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/2515360. Despite not controlling Venezuela, Bolivar called for a Second Congress of Venezuela (the first one had been called in 1811 in Caracas, to declare independence), to assemble in Angostura. Criollos would know be second-class citizens. 2003. He also publicly proclaimed the emancipation of slaves in Carupano, in 1816. Simon Bolivar was one of the liberators in the time of the revolution in the northern part of South America. hold on the North American continent five. Its culminating piece of legislation was the Venezuelan Constitution of 1819, officially adopted on August 15, but quickly made obsolete by the creation of the Republic of Colombia on December 17, 1819. But, this second Venezuelan Republic would also prove to be short-lived. This speech, now known as the Angostura Address, is a prime document in the Bolivarian canon. His choice of admiration for an ancient Greek city, reveals his militaristic tendency in the Angostura Address: The Republic of Sparta produced more real effects than Solons ingenious creation, even though it seemed a chimerical invention at first. But, as it turned out, this was just to pay lip service as Bolivar assumed dictatorial powers again and again throughout his ensuing political career. 2010. Government posts were bought and sold, thus being filled by grossly incompetent administrators. The Congress of Angostura is considered Venezuela's second legislative congress, the first being the one that met in 1811. Once again, Bolivar had to flee. Disqus. At the opening session, held at the Orinoco River port of Angostura (today Ciudad Bolvar), on 15 February 1819, Bolvar delivered a major address in which he warned against imitation of Anglo-American institutions and called for a new constitution featuring a hereditary Senate and a "moral power" with special responsibility for education and Bogota: Random House. In Simon Bolivar's Message to the Congress of Angostura, he states that Latin American people deserve their independence. June 13, 1821. Simon Bolvar's 1819 address to the Congress of Angostura took place in Venezuela during the long course of the struggle for independence. Lynch, J. State Fullerton. The Bourbon reforms sought to change that, and they succeeded in doing so. 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. 2015. Neoliberal Hegemony and the Pink Tide in Latin America. years prior to the Congress of Angostura. 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. This logic is very hard to follow. A strongly rooted force can only correct this weakness. Yet, as previously mentioned, his 1826 Bolivian Constitution stipulated a ruler who was basically a king without a crown. But there is more. He failed miserably, the Republic collapsed, and after guaranteeing his own freedom by turning against Francisco de Miranda he managed to flee into exile (Paredes 2015). Scanned by J. S. Arkenberg, Dept. The Angostura Address 200 Years Later: A Critical Reading. Iberoamericana Nordic Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies, vol. Por que no soy bolivariano. 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. Again, contemporary anti-colonialists may find much of value in Bolivars words. There can be multiple answers to this question: These sources both signify a change in attitude with the people of each nation. Discurso del general Bolivar al Congreso de Angostura. Discussion Questions; Further Readings; Honduras: A Country and a Coup However, he implores his audience of 26 representatives to take into account social realities of the former Viceroyalty when writing a new constitution. 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). Scanned by J. S. Arkenberg, Dept. There, he Simn Bolvar, el culto heroico y la nacin. Hispanic American Historical Review, 107145. The Angostura Address 200 Years Later: A Critical Reading. In 1817, Bolivar captured the city of Angostura (now Ciudad Bolivar) and the whole of Guayana, and established it as his center of military operations. Please look indulgently on this declaration of my political vision, on my heartfelt desires and my earnest pleas, which I have dared to address to you in the name of the people (Bolivar 1819). We all owe it our obedience and loyalty. Unlike other far more questionable Venezuelan caudillos of the latter 19th Century (such as Ezequiel Zamora), who freed their slaves only after having been financially compensated, Bolivar genuinely freed his own slaves without any compensation. Bolivars political philosophy, as laid out in the Angostura Address and other political writings, also took on these authoritarian leanings. Independence would, nevertheless, prove to be no easy task. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt6wrcf5. The Congress of Angostura is considered Venezuela's second legislative congress, the first being the one that met in 1811. 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). DOI: http://doi.org/10.16993/iberoamericana.427, Andrade G, Lugo-Ocando J. Its culminating piece of legislation was the Venezuelan Constitution of 1819, officially adopted on August 15, but quickly made obsolete by the creation of the Republic of Colombia on December 17, 1819. 1. Who could resist the admiration and esteem inspired by an intelligent government, which unites at the same moment public and private rights, which forms by general consent the supreme law of individuals? Some nostalgic defenders of the Spanish Empire in Latin American countries claim that the Indies were not colonies at all. Bolivar, S. 1830. 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