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General Mosquera's Mission to Chile and Peru: A Turning Point in New Granadan Diplomacy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

John W. Kitchens
John W. Kitchens*
Affiliation:
Tuskegee Institute
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Extract

The 1842-1844 diplomatic mission of General Tomás Cipriano de Mosquera is generally assumed to have had as its major purpose the extradition of his personal and political enemy, General José María Obando. Obando had been a rebel leader in the War of the Supremos, the New Granadan civil war of 1839-1842, and the victorious administration in Bogotá (the ministeriales) had also charged him with complicity in the 1830 assassination of Marshal Antonio José de Sucre. During the diplomatic mission a large portion of Mosquera's time and effort was indeed spent in attempting to obtain Obando's extradition and to discredit him in various ways. This study, however, will be concerned primarily with the original objectives of the mission—those relating to New Granada's role in the regional diplomacy of western South America.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 29 , Issue 2 , October 1972 , pp. 151 - 172
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1972

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References

1 Grants from Vanderbilt University and Lafayette College facilitated research for this article in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Chile. The writer is dealing with the feud between Mosquera and Obando in a separate study.

2 Rivas, Raimundo, Historia diplomática de Colombia, 1810–1934 (Bogotá: Imprenta Nacional, 1961), pp. 186–87, passim.Google Scholar

3 Kitchens, John W., “Colombian-Chilean Relations, 1817–1845: A Diplomatic Struggle for Pacific Coast Hegemony” (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Vanderbilt Univesity, 1969), pp. 331–49.Google Scholar

4 For the political and military history of this period, see Arboleda, Gustavo, Historia contemporánea de Colombia desde la disolución de la antigua república de ese nombre hasta la época presente (6 vols.; Bogotá, etc.: Editorial Arboleda y Valencia and others, 1918–35), I, 350–489, II, 1–73.Google Scholar See also the contemporaneously kept (but published much later) Restrepo, José Manuel, Diario político y militar: Memorias sobre los sucesos importantes de la época para servir a la historia de la revolución de Colombia y de la Nueva Granada desde 1819 para adelante (4 vols.; Bogotá: Imprenta Nacional, 1954), III, 135–303 Google Scholar; and his Historia de la Nueva Granada (2 vols.; Bogotá: Editorial Cromos and Editorial El Catolicismo, 1952 and 1963), I, 145–325.

5 Kitchens, , “Colombian-Chilean Relations …,” pp. 12–14, 296–302Google Scholar; Rivas, , Historia diplomática de Colombia, pp. 196–201 Google Scholar; Dávila, Luis Robalino, Orígenes del Ecuador de hoy (4 vols.; Puebla: Editorial José M. Cajica, Jr., 1967 Google Scholar [Vol. II cited herein published in Quito by Talleres Gráficos Nacionales, 1964]), I, 283–86, passim.

6 Arboleda, , Historia contemporánea de Colombia …, 1, 103, 267–73, passim Google Scholar; Plata, Horacio Rodriguez, José María Obando, íntimo: Archivo, epistolario, comentarios (1 vol. to date; Bogotá: Editorial Sucre, 1958), I, 80–81, 257–85Google Scholar; Lemos Guzmán, Antonio J., Obando, de Cruzverde a Cruzverde (2d ed.; Popayán: Editorial Universidad del Cauca, 1959), pp. 286–322.Google Scholar

7 El Comercio (Lima), 22 Jan. 1842.

8 Restrepo, , Historia de la Nueva Granada, 1, 284–92Google Scholar; Espinel, Marcos, ed., Protocolo de las conferencias entre los jenerales en jefe de los dos ejércitos del Ecuador i la Nueva Granada tenidas en Pasto a 15 de Octubre de 1841 sobre la intervención Ecuatoriana, y nuevos límites territoriales (Bogotá: Imp. de J. A. Cualla, 1842).Google Scholar

9 See, e. g., Mariano Ospina Rodríguez (the New Granadan cabinet secretary in charge of foreign relations, which position will hereinafter be referred to as MFRNG), Bogotá, 2 Sept. 1842, to Herrán, Archivo Herrán, Archivo de la Academia Colombiana de Historia, Bogotá, Colombia (hereinafter referred to as Archivo Herrán); Herrán, 3 Aug., 19 Sept. 1842, to Ospina, from copybook, ibid. Mosquera anonymously published a defense of the agreement in , K. P. O., Nueva Granada i Ecuador (Panamá: privately printed, 1842).Google Scholar

10 Both of these territories pertained to the Viceroyalty of New Granada in all respects until a royal decree of 1802 transferred the military and ecclesiastical jurisdiction over Maynas to Peru. Jaén was attached to independent Peru in 1821 following a coup against the local Spanish government officials. Gran Colombia and Peru were unable to arrive at a definitive agreement regarding jurisdiction, and control passed from one to the other and was sometimes divided. With the disintegration of Gran Colombia, Peru took advantage of the situation to establish domination over both provinces. ( Kitchens, , “Colombian-Chilean Relations …,” pp. 12–13, 296, 358Google Scholar; Rivas, , Historia diplomática de Colombia, pp. 168–74Google Scholar; Salazar, Arturo García, Resumen de historia diplomática del Perú, 1820–1884 [Lima: Sanmartí y Cía., 1928], pp. 9–11, passim.)Google Scholar

11 The above is a brief summary of this writer's unpublished study of these negotiations. The major sources are various documents in the Archivo del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, Lima, Peru; Legación, ecuatoriana, Protocolo de sus conferencias con la legación peruana en Quito, año de 1841 (Quito: Imprenta de Alvarado, 1842)Google Scholar; and various contemporary newspapers and broadsides in Lima, Quito, and Santiago. For recent interpretative accounts of the negotiations see Dávila, Robalino, Orígenes del Ecuador de hoy, 2, 240–48Google Scholar; and Basadre, Jorge, Historia de la República del Perú (6th ed.; 16 vols.; Lima: Editorial Universitaria, 1968), 2, 249–55.Google Scholar

12 Basadre, , Historia de la República del Perú, 2, 242.Google Scholar

13 Rivas, , Historia diplomática de Colombia, 198–201 Google Scholar; Dávila, Robalino, Orígenes del Ecuador de hoy, 1, 332–35, II, 87–88.Google Scholar

14 Ospina, Bogotá, 7 June 1842, to Mosquera, Archivo del General Mosquera, Archivo del Cauca, Universidad del Cauca, Popayán, Colombia (hereinafter referred to as Archivo Mosquera). See also Ospina, Bogotá, 27 July, 19 Oct. 1842, to Mosquera, ibid.; Herrán, Bogotá, 25 July 1843, to Mosquera, ibid.; and Mosquera, Cartagena, 24 June 1842, to Herrán, Archivo Herrán.

15 See, e. g., Herrán, Bogotá, 15 July 1842, to Mosquera, Archivo Mosquera; Mosquera, Panamá, 10 Sept. 1842, to Herrán, Archivo Herrán; and Restrepo, , Diario político y militar …, 2, 315, 322.Google Scholar

16 Ospina, Bogotá, 23 June, 27 July 1842, to Mosquera, Archivo Mosquera. See also Herrán, Bogotá, 22 June 1842, “Decreto del gobierno de la Nueva Granada,” ibid.; Mosquera, Cartagena, 24 June, Panamá, 23 July 1842, to Herrán, Archivo Herrán; and Herrán, Bogotá, 23 June 1842, to General Manuel Bulnes [president of Chile], “Gobierno y ajentes diplomáticos de los Estados de Colombia en Chile, 1835–1846,” Archivo Nacional, Santiago, Chile (hereinafter referred to as GACC-Chile).

17 Kitchens, , “Colombian-Chilean Relations …,” pp. 249–80, 318–54, passim Google Scholar; Burr, Robert N., By Reason or Force: Chile and the Balancing of Power in South America, 1830–1905 (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1965), pp. 12–68.Google Scholar See also Basadre, , Historia de la República del Perú, 2, 107–237 Google Scholar; Encina, Francisco Antonio, Historia de Chile desde la prehistoria hasta 1891 (1st complete ed.; 20 vols.; Santiago: Editorial Nascimento, 1948–1952), 11, 125–592 Google Scholar; and Kendall, Lane Carter, “Andrés Santa Cruz and the Peru-Bolivian Confederation,” Hispanic American Historical Review, 16, 1 (Feb. 1936), 29–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

18 See, e.g., Martner, Daniel, Historia de Chile: Historia económica (Santiago: Balcells, 1929), pp. 128–226.Google Scholar

19 La Gaceta del Comercio (Valparaíso), 15 Feb. 1843.

20 Manuel José Mosquera, Bogotá, 19 May 1843, to Manuel María Mosquera, printed in Arboleda Llorente, José María, Vida del ¡limo. Señor Manuel José Mosquera, Arzobispo de Santa Fe de Bogotá (2 vols.; Bogotá: Ministerio de Educación Nacional, 1956), II, 216–20.Google Scholar See similar expressions of admiration for Chile and its conservative regime in El Día (Bogotá), 26 Nov. 1843, 1 Jan. 1844; Ospina, Mariano [Rodríguez, ], Exposición que el Secretario de Estado en el Despacho del Interior y Relaciones Exteriores del Gobierno de la Nueva Granada dirije al Congreso Constitucional, el año de 1842 (Bogotá: Imp. de J. A. Cualla, 1842)Google Scholar; and Restrepo, , Diario político y militar …, 3, 299–300.Google Scholar

21 For perceptive character sketches of Mosquera, see Helguera, J. León, “The First Mosquera Administration in New Granada, 1845-1849” (unpublished Ph.D. disseration, University of North Carolina, 1958), pp. 39–48, passim Google Scholar; Helguera, J. León and Davis, Robert H., eds., Archivo epistolar del General Mosquera: Correspondencia con el General Ramón Espina, 1835–1866 (Bogotá: Ed. Kelly, 1966), pp. 23–28 Google Scholar; and Monsalve, Joaquín Estrada, Mosquera: Su grandeza y su comedia (Bogotá: Ed. Minerva, 1945), pp. 16–48, passim.Google Scholar

22 Ospina, Bogotá, 27, 29 July 1842, to Mosquera, Archivo Mosquera; Herrán and Ospina, Bogotá, 29 July 1842, “Decreto del gobierno de la Nueva Granada,” ibid.

23 Herrán, Bogotá, 12 Aug. 1842, to Mosquera, ibid.

24 Mosquera, Panamá, 18 July, 30 Aug. 1842, to Herrán, Archivo Herrán.

25 Mosquera, Cartagena, 24 June, Panamá, 23, 29 July 1842, to Herrán, ibid. Mosquera reiterated these ideas on several other occasions.

26 See, e.g., Mosquera, Panamá, 18 July, 21 Aug., 10 Sept. 1842, to Herrán, ibid.

27 Mosquera, aboard the Perú in the Gulf of Guayaquil, 22 Oct. 1842, to Herrán, ibid.

28 Mosquera, Lima, 4 Nov. 1842, to MFRNG, from copybook, Archivo Mosquera; Mosquera, Lima, 4 Nov., Callao, 5 Nov. 1842, to Herrán, Archivo Herrán.

29 Pardo, Lima, 8 Nov. 1842, to the minister of foreign relations of Peru (hereinafter referred to as MFRPe), “Servicio diplomático extranjero: Legación de Colombia,” Archivo del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, Lima, Peru (hereinafter referred to as SDELC-Peru); Benito Lazo [MFRPe], Lima, 15 Nov. 1842, to Pardo, “Correspondencia expedida: Cónsul General de Nueva Granada, 1841–1842,” Archivo del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, Lima, Peru (hereinafter referred to as CECG-Peru).

30 See, e.g., José Dávila [MFRPe], Lima, 22 Feb. 1843, to chargé of Peru in Chile, “Oficios a la legación en Chile, 1843,” Archivo del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, Lima, Peru.

31 Pardo, Lima, 24 Nov., 5 Dec. 1842, to MFRPe, SDELC-Peru; Benito Lazo, Lima, 26 Nov. 1842, to Pardo, CECG-Peru.

32 Mosquera, Valparaíso, 21 Nov. 1842, to Herrán, Archivo Herrán; Mosquera, Valparaíso, 26 Nov. 1842, to MFRNG, from copybook, Archivo Mosquera.

33 See, e.g., El Mercurio (Valparaíso), 18 Feb., 29 Mar., 14 June 1843; El Araucano (Santiago), 25 Mar., 1 Apr. 1842; and Mosquera, Valparaíso, 21 Nov. 1842, to MFRNG, from copybook, Archivo Mosquera.

34 Irarrázaval, Ramón Luis, Memoria que el Ministro de Estado en el Despacho de Relaciones Exteriores presenta al Congreso Nacional en 1842 (Santiago: Imprenta y Litografía del Estado, 20 July 1842), pp. 4–8.Google Scholar

35 Ramón Luis Irarrázaval (minister of foreign relations of Chile, hereinafter referred to as MFRCh), Santiago, 4 July 1842, to MFRNG, “Correspondencia dirijida a los gobiernos de México, Colombia, Centro América, y los Estados Unidos de América, 1826–1855,” Archivo Nacional, Santiago, Chile.

36 See, e.g., El Mercurio (Valparaíso), 2 Feb., 27 Mar., 9 Apr., 14 June, 19 July 1842; Ramón Renjifo [interim MFRCh], to MFRPe, 11 Jan. 1842 “Diplomas e instrucciones,” Archivo Nacional, Santiago, Chile; Manuel Amunátegui [Chilean chargé in Peru], Lima, 2 Apr., 12 May 1842, to MFRCh, “Agentes de Chile en el Perú, 1839–1842,” Archivo Nacional, Santiago, Chile.

37 Mosquera, Santiago, 10 Dec. 1842, to MFRCh, GACC-Chile.

38 Mosquera, Santiago, 14 Dec. 1842, to MFRNG, from copybook, Archivo Mosquera.

39 Mosquera, Santiago, 12, lì Dec. 1842, to Herrán, Archivo Herrán.

40 Herrán, Bogotá, 14, 21, 28 Dec. 1842, to Mosquera, Archivo Mosquera; Ospina, Bogotá, 28 Dec. 1842, to Mosquera, ibid.

41 Mosquera, Santiago, 11, 29 May 1843, to Herrán, Archivo Herrán; Herrán, Bogotá, 25 July 1843, to Mosquera, Archivo Mosquera.

42 Mosquera, Valparaíso, 22 Feb. 1843, to Herrán, in code, Archivo Herrán; Mosquera, Santiago, 11 May 1843, to Herrán, ibid.; Mosquera, Santiago, 14 Apr. 1843, 5 Feb. 1844, to MFRNG, from copybook, Archivo Mosquera. This may well have been neither a pretext nor a paranoiac delusion. It is not inconceivable that the Santiago government would consider using the threat of supporting Obando to prevent New Granada from upsetting the power balance of Ecuador and Bolivia versus Peru that Chile had maintained since 1839.

43 See, e.g., Mosquera, Santiago, 17 May, 17 June, 11 Nov. 1843, to Herrán, Archivo Herrán; Mosquera, Santiago, 30 May 1843, to MFRNG, from copybook, Archivo Mosquera.

44 Mosquera, Santiago, 31 Mar., 14 Apr., 12, 30 May 1843, to MFRNG, from copybook, Archivo Mosquera; Mosquera, Santiago, 29 May 1843, to Herrán, Archivo Herrán.

45 Mosquera, Lima, 3 Nov. 1842, circular letter addressed to the foreign ministers of Bolivia, Buenos Aires, Chile, Guatemala, Mexico, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Brazil, from copybook, Archivo Mosquera; Mosquera, Valparaíso, 23 Nov. 1842, to MFRCh, GACC-Chile; Mosquera, Valparaíso, 23 Nov. 1842, to Herrán, Archivo Herrán.

46 Mosquera, Santiago, 22 Feb. 1843, to Herrán, Archivo Herrán; Mosquera, Santiago, 6 Mar. 1843, to MFRNG, from copybook, Archivo Mosquera.

47 Ospina, Bogotá, 5 Apr. 1843, to Mosquera, Archivo Mosquera; La Gaceta del Comercio (Valparaíso), 24 May 1843.

48 Ospina, Bogotá, 5 Apr. 1843, to Mosquera, in code and very confidential, Archivo Mosquera.

49 See, e.g., Mosquera, Santiago, 12 30 May 1843, to MFRNG, from copybook, ibid.; Mosquera, Santiago, 29 May 1843, to Herrán, Archivo Herrán.

50 Mosquera’s treaty project is in GACC-Chile.

51 Mosquera, Santiago, 29 Aug., 13 Nov. 1843, to MFRCh, GACC-Chile.

52 Copies of the Chilean counter project are in the Mosquera, Archivo and “Comunicaciones a los ajentes extranjeros, 1842–1845,” Archivo Nacional, Santiago, Chile Google Scholar (here-inafter referred to as CAE-Chile).

53 Mosquera, Santiago, 17, 20 Jan. 1844, to MFRCh, GACC-Chile.

54 Irarrázaval, Santiago, 16 July 1844, to Mosquera, CAE-Chile.

55 The texts of the treaty and of the additional articles signed in Lima are in GACC-Chile. They were published, among other places, in Cadena, Pedro Ignacio, comp., Colección de tratados públicos de los Estados Unidos de Colombia (2 vols, in 1; Bogotá: Imprenta de La Luz, 1883–1884).Google Scholar

56 Mosquera, Lima, 22 Mar. 1844, to Herrán, Archivo Herrán; Mosquera, Lima, 2 May 1844, to MFRPe, SDELC-Peru.

57 See, e. g., Mosquera, Lima, 2 May 1844, to MFRPe, SDELC-Peru; Andrés Martínez (MFRPe [of the government of Castilla]), Arequipa, 3 June 1844, to Mosquera, El Peruano (Lima), 15 June 1844.

58 José Manuel Tirado (MFRPe [of the Elías faction]), Lima, 18 June 1844, circular to diplomatic corps in Lima, El Peruano (Lima), 26 June 1844; Mosquera, Lima, 19 June 1844, to MFRPe (José Manuel Tirado), SDELC-Peru.

59 Mosquera, Lima, 20 June 1844, to General Ramón Castilla, SDELC-Peru. Identical notes were sent to Vivanco and Elías. I have not been able to determine definitely what Mosquera proposed.

60 Manuscript copies of the two protocols are in the Archivo Mosquera. They were published in Acosta, Joaquín, Informe del Secretarlo de Estado del despacho de Relactones Estertores de la Nueva Qranda al Congreso Constitucional de 1845 (Bogotá: Imprenta de Zoilo Salazar, 1845), document section, pp. 1–2.Google Scholar

61 Rivas, , Historia diplomática de Colombia, pp. 226–30.Google Scholar

62 Joaquín Acosta, Bogotá, 19 June 1844, to Mosquera, confidential, Archivo Mosquera; Mosquera, Lima, 4 Sept. 1844, to MFRNG, confidential, from copybook, ibid.

63 Rivas, , Historia diplomática de Colombia, pp. 230–32.Google Scholar

64 Herrán, [Bogotá], 28 Aug. 1844, to Mosquera, from copybook, Archivo Herrán; Acosta, , Informe … 1845, pp. 7–9.Google Scholar Insofar as I have been able to determine, Mosquera was uncharacteristically quiet on this matter, especially after being overruled by the Herrán administration. His preoccupation with his candidacy in the presidential election 1844–45 and his concern that this incident might be used against him may explain his restraint.

65 Mosquera, Lima, 22 Mar., 13 July 1844, to Herrán, Archivo Herrán; Mosquera, Lima, 22 Mar. 1844, to the minister of foreign relations of Ecuador, from copybook, Archivo Mosquera.

66 See, e. g., Mosquera, Lima, 20 Aug. 1844, to Triunfo, from copybook, Archivo Mosquera; Mosquera, Lima, 5 July 1844, to Vice Consul José Maria Romero, from copybook, ibid.; Mosquera, Lima, 4 Sept. 1844, to MFRNG, from copybook, ibid.

67 Acosta, Bogotá, 10 July 1844, to Mosquera, ibid.; Pardo, no place or date [between 1 Mar. and 7 June 1845], to President Mosquera, , “Varios Consulados,” tome V, Archivo Nacional, Bogotá, Colombia Google Scholar; Acosta, , Informe … 1845, p. 7.Google Scholar

68 Mosquera, Lima, 13 May 1844, to MFRNG, from copybook, Archivo Mosquera; Mosquera, Lima, 9, 11 Aug. 1844, to MFRPe, SDELC-Peru.

69 Mosquera, Lima, 11, 13 Sept. 1844, to MFRNG, confidential, from copybook, Archivo Mosquera.

70 Acosta, Bogota, 6, 13 Nov. 1844, to Mosquera, ibid.; Mosquera, Lima, 13 Nov. 1844, to MFRNG and the governors of Pasto and Buenaventura, from copybooks, ibid.

71 Acosta, Bogotá, 19 June 1844, to Mosquera, confidential, ibid.; Mosquera, Lima, 4 Sept. 1844, to MFRNG, confidential, from copybook, ibid. The agreement made in Bogotá resulted from an abortive expedition made by New Granadan exiles from the British colony of Jamaica and provided that greater effort would be made to prevent the launching of another such expedition.

72 Mosquera, and Adams, , “Una conferencia con el encargado de negocios de S. M. B.,” Lima, 21 Oct. 1844, ibid.Google Scholar

73 See, e. g., Mosquera, Lima, 26 Aug. 1844, to MFRNG, from copybook, ibid.

74 Mosquera, Lima, 26 Aug. 1844, to Minister General of Peru [Elías], a draft for a protocol of the conferences, from copybook, ibid.

75 See, e. g., Mosquera, Lima, 7 Sept. 1844, to MFRPe, SDELC-Peru.

76 Mosquera, Lima, 20 June 1844, circular to vice consuls of New Granada in Valparaíso, Huacho, Paita, Callao, and Lambayeque, from copybook, Archivo Mosquera; Acosta, Bogotá, 28 May 1844, to Mosquera, ibid.

77 See, e. g., Santiago Arroyo, Popayán, 23 Jan., 18 June 1844, to Mosquera, ibid.; and Mosquera, Lima, 16 Sept. 1844, to administrator of customs in Buenaventura, from copybook, ibid.

78 See, e.g., Mosquera, Lima, 4 Sept. 1844, to Herrán, Archivo Herrán; Mosquera, Lima, 28 Mar. 1844, to MFRNG, from copybook, Archivo Mosquera.

79 Mosquera, Valparaíso, 22 Feb. 1843, to Herrán, Archivo Herrán.

80 Matías León (MFRPe), Lima, 16 Oct. 1844, to Mosquera, Archivo Mosquera. I did not find any reply to Mosquera’s proposal of a treaty with Bolivia in his note of 1 July 1844 to the minister of foreign relations in La Paz.

81 Acosta, Bogotá, 29 May, 6 June, 31 July 1844, to Mosquera, ibid.

82 Mosquera, Buenaventura, 3 Jan. 1845, to Herrán, Archivo Herrán.

83 See, e. g., Rivas, , Historia diplomática de Colombia, pp. 247–57, 302–29Google Scholar; and Burr, , By Reason or Force …, pp. 75–83.Google Scholar