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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 December 2015
On January 8, 1917 Bogotanos who glanced at the morning newspapers were startled to learn of a rebellion in the Llanos. Ten days before Humberto Gómez and a band of armed men had seized the town of Arauca. Ordinarily such an event would excite little concern in the capital. A small village on the Venezuelan border, Arauca was surrounded by vast tropical plains and lacked even a telegraph connection with Bogotá. It was a favorite refuge for Colombian and Venezuelan outlaws who routinely defied with impunity the laws of both countries. Yet Humberto, by killing the principal Colombian authority, the Comisario Especial and proclaiming himself Civil and Military Chief of the “Republic of Arauca” sounded a challenge that could not be ignored. Anxious to safeguard precarious treaty negotiations then in progress with Venezuela, President José Vicente Concha took swift action. He declared a state of siege and ordered two separate military expeditions commanded by General Jeśus García to Arauca. The daily periodicals gave full coverage to the ensuing drama. Their interest continued even after Humberto's capture in Venezuela on February 9, when eye-witness reports of atrocities committed in the Llanos by García's soldiers brought demands for an investigation. Between May and September, the editor of El Diario Nacional and future president, Enrique Olaya Herrera fanned the border incident into a major scandal by attacking the government in the columns of his newspaper and on the floor of the Chamber of Representatives. An analysis of what came to be called “The Arauca Affair” brings to light a little-known aspect of Concha's administration and explores a neglected theme of Colombian history—the interrelationship between the Andean interior and the Llanos frontier.
Research for this study was supported in part by a grant from the National Geographic Society.
1 El Diario Nacional, Jan. 8, 1917.
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66 El Diario Nacional, Dec. 19, 1916.
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80 El Nuevo Tiempo, Jan. 13, 1917.
81 La Unión Conservadora, Feb. 23, 1917.
82 Unfortunately the 1917 issues of La Linterna are missing from the Biblioteca Nacional collection and cannot be consulted in Tunja either. Some of Santos’ editorials were reprinted in Liberal papers of Bogotá. A compilation of his writings, Danza de las Horas (Bogotá, 1969) includes articles from 1917.
83 Gil Blas, Feb. 11, 1917; Jan. 23, 1917.
84 El Diario Nacional, Jan. 9; Jan 10; Jan. 12; Feb. 6; March 22, 1917.
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90 The following account is drawn from articles in El Diario Nacional May 29, July 19 and Oct. 19, 1917.
91 El Diario Nacional, July 18, 1917. Valentín Hidalgo described the above execution to the judge at Santa Rosa.
92 El Diario Nacional, May 29, 1917.
93 Reprinted in El Diario Nacional, July 2, 1917.
94 Reprinted in El Diario Nacional, July 17, 1917.
95 El Espectador, June 1, 1917.
96 Anales de la Cámara de Representantes, #6 (Aug. 8, 1917) p. 22. (Hereafter cited as Anales.)
97 El Diario Nacional, July 18, 1917.
98 El Diario Nacional, October 19, 1917.
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101 García to Director of El Nuevo Tiempo, reprinted in El Diario Nacional (July 21, 1917).
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104 Anales, #112 (Dec. 22, 1917), p. 465.
105 Proceedings of the Chamber of Representatives as recorded by El Nuevo Tiempo, Sept. 9, 1917.
106 Exposición, pp. 12–13.
107 Anales, #112 (Dec. 22, 1917), p. 465.
108 General García’s career was not adversely affected by the Arauca Affair. By Executive Decree of September 16, 1918 he was appointed Governor of Boyacá, a position he held until 1922.
109 El Diario Nacional, Sept. 10, 1917.
110 Anales #112 (Dec. 22, 1917), p. 465.
111 El Diario Nacional, Sept. 21, 1917.
112 Pedro Antonio Molina, MMRE, My 20, 1918, pp. 75–76.
113 Ibid. In an interview with the author, former Colombian consul and Intendant of Arauca, Sr. Rogerio Guáqueta G., stated that Humberto claimed legal citizenship in Venezuela as well as Colombia, and for this reason, he was never surrendered to Colombian authorities. He lived in Venezuela until the statute of limitations had expired for his crimes. Then he returned to Cucuta where he died in the 1950’s.
114 Reprinted in El Diario Nacional, july 27, 1917
115 Alvarez, J.M. Salazar to Director, El Tiempo, Los Llanos, May 1917 Google Scholar in El Tiempo, June 11, 1917.
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122 Informe del Com. Es. de Arauca in MMG, 1929, pp. 226–231.
123 El Tiempo, October 1975.
124 Brunnschweiler, p. 62.