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The Harassed Exile: General Cipriano Castro, 1908–1924

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

William M. Sullivan
William M. Sullivan*
Affiliation:
Marlborough, New Hampshire
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Extract

General Cipriano Castro came to power in Venezuela in 1899. During his nine year regime he destroyed all internal political opposition, imposed a tight, one-party dictatorship, and undermined the national economy by creating federal monopolies, implementing arbitrary trade policies, and antagonizing foreign nations. His relations with outside powers were poor in particular. Not only did General Castro’s refusal—or inability—to pay international debts result in the December 1902 naval blockade of Venezuela by Great Britain, Germany, and Italy, but his undiplomatic treatment of foreign representatives, harassment of foreign companies, and policy of trade warfare prompted the severance of official ties with Colombia (1901), France (1906), the United States (1908), and the Netherlands (1908) and strained relations with Great Britain and Italy. In fact, in late 1908 the Dutch fleet began to conduct a belligerent naval demonstration against the Venezuelan coast and the United States was debating, among stronger measures, whether or not to boycott Venezuelan coffee and cacao. Clearly most Venezuelans and most foreigners favored General Castro’s removal from office. Their wishes were fulfilled in late 1908 when the dictator’s health—he had been bordering on death for four years due to a kidney ailment—again collapsed and he opted for surgery in Germany. First Vice President Juan Vicente Gómez was named Acting Chief Executive until General Castro returned from Europe.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 33 , Issue 2 , October 1976 , pp. 282 - 297
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1976

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References

1 See Acton to Grey, the Hague, 21 December 1908, British Public Record Office, No. 44729, enclosure, report of Dutch Military Attache to Venezuela Lieutenant Coronel Yarde Bulle, F.O. 371/570, hereafter cited at B.P.R.O.; idem., 23 December 1908, B.P.R.O., No. 45010, F.O. 371/570; and Dolge to Root, Caracas, 28 November 1908, Archives of the Department of State, personal and confidential, Numerical File 297 3136/74-5, hereafter cited as A.D.S.

2 On 26 November the Guadeloupe arrived at Port-of-Spain but no passengers were allowed ashore because the ship carried a foul bill of health. Trinidadian officials, who had planned to receive and entertain General Castro at the governor’s mansion, thereby avoided organized demonstrations by Venezuelan exiles. See the New York Times, 28 November 1908, p. 3; and Moffat to Asst. Sec. of State, Port-of-Spain, 30 November 1908, A.D.S., Num. File 297 3136/76.

3 See the New York Times, 1 December 1908, p. 1; and Ibid., 7 December 1908, p. 1.

4 See the Times (London), 11 December 1908, p. 7; and Macdonald to Grey, Bordeaux, 10 December 1908, B.P.R.O., No. 43364, F.O. 371/571.

5 Ibid.

6 See the New York Times, 12 December 1908, p. 4; and White to Sec. of State, Paris, 15 December 1908, A.D.S., Num. File 297 3136/89-90.

7 General Castro’s trip to Germany is discussed in “Los primeros 30 días del gobierno de Juan Vicente Gómez,” Boletín del Archivo Histórico de Miraflores, 5 (March-April 1960), J. Claussell, no address, 14 December 1908 to Dr. M. Alvizu Seekatz in Barquisimeto; the Times (London), 15 December 1908, p. 5; and the New York Times, 15 December 1908, p. 2.

8 See Ibid., 20 December 1908, 3: 4; and de Solis to Grey, Berlin, 18 December 1908, B.P.R.O., No. 44359, F.O. 371/571.

9 General Castro’s illness is described in “El viaje del Presidente Castro á Europa,” B.A.H.M., 45 (November December 1966), pp. 106–7; Fernández, Carlos Emilio, Hombres y sucesos de mi tierra: Venezuela, 1909–1935 (Madrid: Escuelas Prof Google Scholar. “Sde. Corazon,” 2nd. ed., 1969), p. 42; and Hill to Sec. of State, Washington, 16 January 1909, A.D.S., Num. File 297 3136/116.

10 General Castro paid Dr. Israel 50,000 marcs for his medical fees and 10,000 marcs for the use of the Hygela Hospital.

11 See the New York Times, 17 January 1909, C: 2; and “EI viaje del Presidente Castro á Europe,” B.A.H.M., 45 (November-December 1966), pp. 167–9, J. de J. Paul, Paris, 8 February 1909 to General Gómez in Caracas.

12 General Gómez feared only three men during his twenty-seven years in power: General Manuel Vicente Romero García (who died in Colombia in 1917), General Cipriano Castro (who died in Puerto Rico in 1924), and General Román Delgado Chalbaud (who was imprisoned between 1913 and 1927).

13 El Universal, 16 April 1909, p. 1. General Castro’s titles were rescinded and all streets, plazas, ships, or buildings named in his honor were changed.

14 On 9 January 1909 fifty-three folios implicating General Castro in a conspiracy against the acting government were submitted to the Interior Minister, and in March the High Federal Court declared the government’s suit against the ex-President well-founded. Meanwhile, General Castro’s executive functions were suspended due to his alleged plot to assassinate General Gómez on 19 December 1908, and on the following 10 April a warrant was issued for his arrest. On 19 April General Gómez ordered all charges dropped against those implicated in the attempt on his life. However, General Castro was still held accountable for his February 1907 order to execute rebel leader Antonio Paredes. See Ramón J. Velásquez, La caida del liberalismo amarillo: tiempo y drama de Antonio Paredes (Caracas: Los Talleres de Cromotip, 1973), p. 363; Buchanan to Sec. of State, Caracas, 9 January 1909, A.D.S., confidential, Num. File 297 3136/105; Russell to Sec. of State, Caracas, 21 March 1909, A.D.S., Num. File 297 3136/130-32, confidential; idem., 22 April 1909, A.D.S., Num. File 298 3136/179; Caffery to Sec. of State, Caracas, 18 January 1913, A.D.S., 831.001C27/12, R. 8, enclosure, 2 March 1909, copy of the criminal proceedings against General Castro for the assassination of General Paredes; El Universal, 1 April 1909, p. 1; Gaceta Oficial (Caracas), 25 March 1909, No. 10,653, p. 31,086; and Paredes, , Como llegó Cipriano Castro al poder. Memorias contemporáneas o bosquejo histórico donde se ve como llegó Cipriano Castro al poder en Venezuela y como se ha sostenido en el (Caracas: Ediciones Garrido, 1954), p. XC Google Scholar.

15 General Castro’s five haciendas were located along the Caracas to Valencia railroad, his two cattle spreads in the Orinoco region (they were 150 square miles in area and grazed 60,000 cattle and 10,000 horses), and his Orinoco Navigation Company possessed a commercial and transportation monopoly of the Orinoco River and its tributaries. Information taken from a 12 May 1972 interview with former newspaperman and Castro inlaw, Benjamín Arnaldo Meyners in San Juan, Puerto Rico; Berliner to Sec. of State, Tenerife, 10 May 1910, A.D.S., 831.00/313, R. 2; “Memorandum from the Department of State, Division of Latin American Affairs,” 27 July 1910, A.D.S., 831.00/304, R. 2; and Whitehouse to Sec. of State, Caracas, 9 September 1909, A.DS., 831.00/310.

16 In addition to his other assets, General Castro allegedly owned a third interest in the Guanoco asphalt mine, the Bermúdez, Arismendi, and Benitez sections of the Bermúdez telephone company, $2,000,000 in certificates of the 1905 diplomatic debt, many shares in the cattle and tobacco monopolies, and the Maraico dock. See New York Times, 14 December 1924,9: 11.

17 See Ibid., 5 December 1908, p. 1; Ibid., 27 April 1909, p. 4; and “Los exilados, las conspiraciones y los informes al gobierno,” B.A.H.M., 7 (July-August 1960), Domingo Fabbiani, Ponce, Puerto Rico, November 1909 to General Gómez in Caracas.

18 Information taken from a 12 May 1972 interview with Benjamín Arnaldo Meyners in San Juan, Puerto Rico; Berliner to Sec. of State, Tenerife, 11 April 1910, A.D.S., 831.00/300; and “Memorandum from the Department of State, Division of Latin American Affairs,” 27 July 1910, A.DS., 831.00/304. General Castro informed Consul Berliner of his assets in a private interview.

19 See New York Times, 23 March 1909, p. 5; the Times (London), 25 March 1909, p. 5; “Los primeros meses de Castro en el destierro,” B.A.H.M., 45 (November-December 1966), pp.; 170–3, J. de J Paul, Berlin, 23 March 1909 to General Gómez in Caracas; Mariano Picón-Salas, Los días de Cipriano Castro (historia venezolana del 1900) (Caracas: Ediciones Garrido, 1953), p. 238; and Fred J. Rippy and Clyde E. Hewitt, “Cipriano Castro, ‘Man without a Country.’” American Historical Review, 55 (October 1949), p. 36.

20 Russell to Sec. of State, Caracas, 28 March 1909, A.D.S., Num. File 298 3136/148. Ambassador Russell predicted that “those discontented with the Gómez regime would flock to him [General Castro], and there are a considerable number of the latter who are at present out of power and consequently out of pocket.”

21 See Rippy, “Cipriano Castro, ‘Man Without a Country,’” p. 41; Wilson to Jusserand, Washington, 29 March 1909, A.D.S., Num. File 297 3136/127; and the Times (London), 8 April 1909, p. 5.

22 See Wilson to Sec. of the Navy, Washington, 29 March 1909, A.DS., Num. File 297 3136/126; idem., 9 April 1909, A.D.S., Num. File 298 3136/153A; and Knox to Russell, Washington, 1 April 1909, A.D.S., Num. File 297 3136/135.

23 See Sec. of the Navy to Sec. of State, Washington, 31 March 1909, A.DS., Num. File 297 3136/134; El Universal, 10 April 1909, p. 1; and Castro, Cipriano, La verdad histórica (San Juan, Puerto Rico: El Mundo, 1919), p. 25 Google Scholar.

24 See New York Times, 7 April 1909, p. 4; the Times (London), 7 April 1909, p. 5; and Grey to Corbett, London, 6 April 1909, Further Correspondence Respecting the Affairs of Venezuela, British Public Record Office, 1909, p. 22 (while in Venezuela, the author read thirteen volumes of published diplomatic documents in the British Embassy, hereafter referred to as B.P.R.O., Further Correspondence).

25 See Hendrickson, Embert J., “The New Venezuelan Controversy: the Relations of the United States and Venezuela, 1904 to 1914 (Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Minnesota, 1963), p. 239;Google Scholar the Times (London), 8 April 1909, p. 5; and White to Sec. of State, Paris, 8 April 1909, A.D.S., Num File 297 3136/147, telegram.

26 On 8 April General Castro went for a morning ride, complaining on his return that a three inch opening had occurred in his incision and that he felt feverish and unable to eat. However, three doctors examined him and pronounced him fit to travel. See Schnegg to Asst. Sec. of State, Fort-de-France, 13 April 1909, A.DS., Num. File 298 3136/173; “Las andanzas de Castro,” B.A.H.M., 31 (July-August 1964), p. 29; and the Times (London), 9 April 1909, p. 9.

27 See “Las andanzas de Castro,” B.A.H.M., 31 (July-August 1964), pp. 13–37; New York Times, 11 April 1909, p. 1; and Ibid., 12 April 1909, p. 4.

28See the Times (London), 12 April 1909, p. 3; New York Times, 12 April 1909, p. 4; and Manning to Sec. of State, Cartagena, Colombia, 10 April 1909, A.D.S., Num. File 298 3136/177.

29 El Universal, 11 May 1909, p. 1. Although Zoila Castro was not allowed to land in Venezuela, high government officials spoke to her aboard the Guadeloupe.

30 See Fox to Sec. of State, Quito, 24 June 1909, A.D.S., Num. File 298 3136/203-4, enclosure, C. C. Hobson, Panama, 6 June 1909 to W. C. Fox in Quito; White to Sec. of State, Paris, 8 July 1909, A.D.S., Num. File 428 5025/179, confidential telegram; and El Universal, 23 June 1909, p. 1.

31 Information on the Castro family was taken from the New York Times, 14 August 1909, p. 4; Russell to Sec. of State, Caracas, 2 October 1909, A.D.S., Num. File 298 3136/245, telegram; Manuel Landaeta Rosales, Conjuración contra la vida del General Juan Vicente Gómez, Presidente de Venezuela, y sus consecuencias (Caracas: Imprenta Nacional, 1908), p. 144, Commander of Arms Pedro Murillo, San Cristóbal, 24 December 1908 to General J. V. Gómez in Caracas; M. Parra Picón, Demanda del gobierno nacional de Venezuela contra Celestino Castro, por cobro de bolivares (Caracas: n.p., 1911), pp. 116–23; “Cartas para el Presidente Gómez,” B.A.H.M., 8 (September October 1960), pp. 132–4, M. Parra Picón, San Cristóbal, 1 December 1909 to General J. V. Gómez; Burnell to Asst. Sec. of State, Barranquilla, Colombia, 26 June 1909, A.D.S., Num. File 298 3136/205; idem., 28 June 1909, A.D.S., Num. File 298 3136/206; Russell to Sec. of State, Caracas, 6 September 1909, A.D.S., Num. File 3136/238; El Universal, 20 August 1910, p. 1; Whitehouse to Sec. of State,Caracas, 25 August 1910, A.D.S., 831.00/308, R. 2; idem., 20 August 1910, A.D.S., 831.00/305, R. 2; and a 12 May 1972 interview with Benjamín Arnaldo Meyners in San Juan, Puerto Rico. General Castro’s relatives settled in Santa Cruz de Tenerife where they rented the huge Villa Hamilton.

32 General Castro, Santander, Spain, 21 September 1909 to the Director of El Tiempo in Caracas, the Lázaro Family Collection. Helena Lázaro de Platon has inherited several shoeboxes of correspondence written by General Cipriano Castro and Zoila Castro, mostly between 1909 and 1930. The documents are located in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

33 See Mallet to the Colonial Office, 10 December 1909, Further Correspondence Respecting the Affairs of Venezuela, B.P.R.O., No. 105, 1909, p. 116; and Berliner to Sec. of State, Tenerife, 8 February 1910, A.D.S., Num. File 298 3136/280.

34 See Idem., 14 February 1910, A.D.S., 831.00/291; and Wilson to the Caracas Legation, Washington, 11 February 1910, A.D.S., Num. File 298 3136/248, telegram.

35 See Knox to Bryce, Washington, 26 May 1911, A.D.S., 831.00/324, R. 2; Knox to the Sec. of the Navy, Washington, 26 May 1911, A.D.S., 831.00/345A, R. 2; Winons to Sec. of State, Seville, Spain, 26 May 1911, A.D.S., 831.00/359; Consul in Limón, Costa Rica, to Sec. of State, 9 June 1911, A.D.S., 831.00/369; and Sec. of State to Sec. of the Navy, Washington, 14 June 1911, A.D.S., 831.00/388C, telegram marked urgent, R. 2.

36 See Sticht to his commanding officer, La Guaira, 8 July 1911, A.D.S., 831.00/443, R. 2; “La gobernación del Dr. Márquez Bustillos,” B.A.H.M., 32 (September-October 1964), p. 166, V. Márquez Bustillos, Caracas, 6 September 1911 to General J. V. Gómez in Maracay. On 6 July 1911, General Gómez ordered 1,200 men from Maracaibo and San Cristóbal to intercept General Castro who was reported to be proceeding to Río Hacha.

37 Information taken from an 8 May 1972 interview with Ramiro Lázaro Castro in San Juan, Puerto Rico, who was with his ailing uncle in Las Palmas, Canary Islands, during 1911; General Castro, Las Palmas, 29 May 1911 to Zoila Castro, Lázaro Family Collection; Castro, La verdad histórica, p. 26; and Sec. of State to Sec. of Commerce and Labor, Washington, 10 January 1913, A.D.S., 831.00C27/3, enclosure, “extracts from correspondence in re-illness of Castro.”

38 “Cipriano Castro en los Estados Unidos,” B.A.H.M., 17–18 (March-June 1962), p. 25.

39 See Ibid., pp. 25–83; Wilson to Sec. of Commerce and Labor, Washington, 24 December 1912, A.D.S., 831.00/525, telegram, R. 2; the New York Times, 6 January 1913, p. 7; and Castro, La verdad historia, p. 27.

40 New York Times, 28 January 1913, p. 1.

41 See Ibid., 16 January 1913, p. 1; and Ibid., 31 January 1913, p. 1.

42 See Ibid., 16 February, 1913, 2: 13. The United States Government appealed its case against General Castro from the Federal District Court to the Supreme Court.

43 See Ibid., 7 February 1913, p. 22; and Ibid., 11 February 1913, p. 1.

44 Ibid., 24 February 1913, p. 3.

45 See Ibid., 1 March 1913, p. 5; Ibid., 5 March 1913, p. 3; and Beaupré to Sec. of State, Havana, Cuba, 27 February 1913, A.D.S., 831.001C27/16, R. 8.

46 Antonio Arellano Moreno, Mirador de historia política de Venezuela (Caracas: Ediciones Edime, 1968), p. 23; Dortten to Asst. Sec. of State, La Guaira, 2 August 1913, A.D.S., 831.00/576; “Memorias del Coronel Ramón Parrage,” B.A.H.M., 3 (November December 1959), pp. 79–124; “La prisión de Ramon Delgado Chalbaud,” B.A.H.M., 17–18 (March-June 1962), pp. 85–9; and “La elección presidencial de 1913,” Ibid., pp. 91–118.

47 See Voetter to Sec. of State, La Guaira, 31 July 1913, A.D.S., 831.00/553, R. 3, telegram; “La segunda invasión de Cipriano Castro,” B.A.H.M., 17–18 (March-June 1962), pp. 119–217; “La supuesta invasión de Castro en 1913,” B.A.H.M., 46–48 (January-June 1967), pp. 161–217; New York Times, 6 August 1913, p. 3; and McGoodwin to Sec. of State, Caracas, 28 December 1913, A.D.S., 831.00/618.

48 Wright to Sec. of State, Puerto Cabello, 18 August 1913, A.D.S., 831.00/589, R. 3.

49 New York Times, 21 March 1914, 2: 11. Information taken from an interview with General Castro in Port-of-Spain.

50 Pedro (Castro pseudonym), Port of Spain, no date, to Zoila Castro, Lázaro Family Collection.

51 See McGoodwin to Sec. of State, Caracas, 26 March 1914, A.D.S., 831.001C27/57, R. 8; and “Pequeña crónica de 1914,” B.A.H.M., 30 (May-June 1964), p. 98, 23 March 1914 memorandum.

52 See General Castro, Port-of Spain, 1 May 1914 to Zoila Castro, Lázaro Family Collection; and Idem., 7 November 1914, Ibid.

53 See Idem., 6 August 1914, Ibid.; and Idem., 9 May 1915, Ibid.

54 See Idem., 5 November 1915, Ibid.; and “Varios,” presos políticos, índice, 1900–1915, Archivo Histórico de Miraflores. During research for his doctoral dissertation—“The Rise of Depotism in Venezuela: Cipriano Castro, 1899–1908”—the author read 92 volumes of copybooks written by General Castro, 241 volumes of documents written to the President, a number of volumes of telegrams written to the President, and some fifty volumes of documents separated by the staff of Miraflores Historical Archive as “varios.”

55 See General Castro, Port-of-Spain, 5 November 1915 to Zoila Castro, Lázaro Family Collection; and Idem., 10 January 1916, Ibid.

56 See the New York Times, 17 July 1916, p. 11; and Ibid., 19 July 1916, p. 7.

57 Interview with Benjamín Arnalo Meyners, 9 May 1972, San Juan, Puerto Rico.

58 Picón-Salas, Los días de Cipriano Castro, pp. 245–7.

59 See Smith to the War College Division, Caracas, 31 March 1917, General Staff in Washington, R.G. 165/9034-92, enclosure, Smith to Burnhan in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Caracas, 28 March 1917, Modern Military Section, National Archives, Washington, D. C.

60 See New York Times, 14 September 1917, p. 7; and Zoila Castro, 31 December 1918 to General Castro, Lázaro Family Collection. Zoila Castro wrote that “you have abandoned your home without reason, leaving it to go with that woman …, even though I knew it. I never imagined that [you would go so far as to keep] another house that was not your legitimate home, to return to it with that she-devil, and to take her on the trip you made to Havana, New York, and later Trinidad—where they would not permit you to live because of her. I am perfectly sure that if you had gone [to Port-of-Spain] with your wife, they would not have thrown you out.”

61 See New York Times, 27 October 1917, p. 20; Baker to Sec. of State, Port-of-Spain, 11 October 1917, A.D.S., 831.001C27/9, telegram, R. 8; and Idem., 3 November 1917, A.D.S., 831.001C27/102, R. 8.

62 See General Castro, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 28 October 1920 to Zoila Castro in New York, Lázaro Family Collection; and Penacostes (Castro pseudonym), San Juan, Puerto Rico, 13 November 1921 to Zoila Castro, Ibid.

63 Information taken from a 9 May 1972 interview with Benjamín Arnaldo Meyners in San Juan, Puerto Rico; the New York Times, 27 July 1924, 1: 13; and Picón-Salas, Los dias de Cipriano Castro, pp. 248–9.

64 General Castro died from either a ruptured stomach ulcer or the breaking of an encapsulated malaria cyst—a disease he had contacted in Trinidad between 1913 and 1917. Information taken from a 9 May 1972 interview with Benjamín Arnaldo Meyners in San Juan, Puerto Rico; a 21 August 1971 interview with Miguel Angel Castro in Táriba, Táchira (General Cipriano Castro’s half-brother); El Mundo (San Juan, Puerto Rico), 22 December 1924, and the New York Times, 6 December 1924, p. 15.

65 A close friend of General Gómez, Zoila Castro returned to Caracas within months of her husband’s death. On 2 August 1926 the dictator instructed his subordinates to pay Sra. Castro “the respective values for the purchase of her house in Macuto, the Isle of Barro, and her home in Maracay and, also, the rest [of the assets] of which you are aware that should be divided among General Castro’s heirs.” See Carlos Siso, “La revolución andina,” (Unpublished manuscript in the possession of Dr. Carlos Siso Maury in Caracas), p. 146; Zoila Castro, Caracas, 17 July 1925 to General J. V. Gómez in Maracay, Lazaro Family Collection; Idem., San Juan, Puerto Rico, 31 July 1926, Ibid.; and Idem., 2 August 1926 to Juan José Mendoza in Caracas, Ibid.