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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 December 2015
No statue of Juan Nepomuceno Moreno stands today in Bogotá. Most Colombians have never heard of him, and probably only a few scholars could identify him as a Llanero patriot who fought in the battles of Boyacá and Carabobo. Yet it is not too much to say that in May 1831, the action of this obscure caudillo from Casanare might have changed the course of Colombian history. Already in Venezuela and Argentina, José Antonio Páez and Juan Manuel de Rosas had used the plains as a springboard to unseat the urban elite and take command of their nations. Now Moreno, fresh from a stunning defeat of the forces of Rafael Urdaneta at Cerinza and poised in Zipaquirá with an army of fierce Llaneros, threatened to invade Bogotá, overthrow Bolívar's successor, and impose his own dictatorship. While historians agree that the events of 1831 mark a turning point in the evolution of Colombian politics, they have yet to analyze the role played by Moreno. An examination of his career suggests that his failure to seize control stemmed not only from his own personal limitations as a leader, but was also conditioned by two important trends of nineteenth century Colombian history—the subordination of the Llanos frontier to the highlands, and the emergence of a political system dominated by civilian caudillos.
1 The author expresses her appreciation for the valuable comments made by James W. Park on an earlier draft of this essay that was presented at the Southern Historical Association Meetings in Charleston, South Carolina on November 10, 1983.
2 José Caicedo, Provincia de los Llanos: Padrón tornado en el año de 1778. Morcóte, Oct. 14, 1778. Archivo Hisórico Nacional, Bogotá.
3 Lozano, Fabio y Lozano, , “De Casanare a Boyacá,” in Curso superior de historia de Colombia (1781–1830), 6 vols. (Bogotá, 1951–53), 2, p. 130.Google Scholar
4 Salvador Camacho to Santander, Nunchía, January 25, 1827, Archivo Santander [hereinafter cited as AS] (Bogotá, 1913–1932), XVI, 189. Camacho was a close friend of Santander. He served in the Senate of the Republic of New Granada between 1843 and 1852. His son, Salvador Camacho Roldan (1827–1900) was a prominent Liberal statesman, economist and writer.
5 There are no scholarly studies of Moreno. Brief biographical sketches can be found in Ospina, Joaquín, Diccionario biográfico y bibliográfico de Colombia, 3 vols. (Bogotá, 1937), 2, pp. 828–29Google Scholar; Scarpetta, M. Leonidas, and Vergara, Saturnino, Diccionario biográfico de los campeones de la libertad (Bogotá, 1879), pp. 359–60,Google Scholar and Peñuela, Cayo Leoinidas, Album de Boyacá, 2 vols. (2nd ed; Tunja, 1969), 2, pp. 310–11.Google Scholar
6 J. Ν. Moreno to Santander, Pore, January 19, 1820, AS, IV, pp. 63–66; Gaceta de Colombia, January 29, 1826.
7 N. N. Moreno to Santander, Pore, December 1, 1826, AS, XVI, pp. 30-31. The same letter but with the signature “Juan N. Moreno” is reprinted in Cortázar, Roberto, ed., Correspondencia dirigida al General Santander (hereinafter cited as Corresp.) 14 vols. (Bogotá, 1964–67), 8, pp. 266–67.Google Scholar
8 Restrepo, José M., Historia de la revolución de la República de Colombia en la América Meridional, 6 vols. (Medellín, 1974), 6, p. 317.Google Scholar Moreno’s animosity towards the Minister of War dated back to 1816 when as governor of Casanare, he refused to recognize Urdaneta who was appointed Dictator of Casanare and Jefe of the Army by President José Madrid in Bogotá.
9 Henao, Jesús María, and Arrubla, Gerardo, Historia de Colombia (5th ed; Bogotá, 1929), pp. 560–63.Google Scholar The Admirable Congress met from January 20 to May 10. It promulgated the Constitution of 1830 which Urdaneta suppressed the following September.
10 Urdaneta, Rafael, Memorias del General Rafael Urdaneta (Caracas, 1888), pp. 455–56Google Scholar; Groot, José Manuel, Historia eclesiástica y civil de Nueva Granada 5 vols. (Bogotá, 1953), 5, p. 439.Google Scholar
11 Arboleda, Gustavo, Historia contemporánea de Colombia, 3 vols. (2nd ed; Cali, 1933), 1, p. 42 Google Scholar; Restrepo, , Historia de la revolución, 6, pp. 317–18.Google Scholar
12 Páez, José Antonio, Autobiografía del General Páez, 2 vols. (Caracas, 1975), 2, p. 74.Google Scholar
13 Arboleda, , Historia contemporánea, 1, p. 47.Google Scholar
14 Henao, y Arrubla, , Historia de Colombia, pp. 583–86.Google Scholar Canal, Carlos Restrepo, La Nueva Granada, 2 vols. (Bogotá, 1971),Google Scholar provides the most complete discussion of these events in his first volume which deals with the period between 1831 and 1840.
15 Henao, y Arrubla, , Historia de Colombia, p. 584.Google Scholar
16 Gaceta de Colombia, July 10, 1831.
17 Ibid., June 24, 1831. In this letter Moreno called Urdaneta “that colossus that terrorizes these unfortunate peoples” and denied any personal ambition in fighting to overthrow him.
18 Arboleda, , Historia contemporánea 1, p. 92 Google Scholar; Groot, , Historia eclesiástica, 5, p. 501.Google Scholar
19 Groot, , Historia eclesiástica, 5, p. 506.Google Scholar Writing in 1869, Groot was a militant conservative. He was sympathetic to the policies enacted by Bolívar during his dictatorship, but he shared the Liberal opposition’s disdain for the Llaneros.
20 López, José Hilario, Memorias, 2 vols. (Bogotá, 1942), 2, pp. 132–34.Google Scholar
21 Groot, , Historia eclesiástica, 5, p. 506.Google Scholar
22 Restrepo, José Manuel, Diario político y militar, 4 vols. (Bogotá, 1954–55), 2, p. 192.Google Scholar Restrepo describes General Moreno as an ”ignorant campesino“ in this passage.
23 Canal, Restrepo, La Nueva Granada, 1, p. 191.Google Scholar
24 Groot, , Historia eclesiástica, 5, p. 509.Google Scholar
25 Restrepo, , Diario político y militar, 2, p. 202.Google Scholar
26 Arboleda, , Historia contemporánea, 1, p. 102.Google Scholar
27 Gaceta de Colombia, August 2, 1831.
28 Francisco Soto to Santander, Bogotá, November 1, 1831, AS, XIX, p. 83.
29 Vicente Azuero to Santander; Bogotá, January 7, 1832, AS, XIX, p. 153.
30 Hook, Sidney, The Hero in History (Boston, 1955), pp. 154–57.Google Scholar
31 Lynch, John, “Bolívar and the Caudillos,” Hispanic American Historical Review 63 (Feb. 1983), p. 2.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
32 For a recent and authoritative analysis of Bolívar’s dictatorship, see Bushnell, David, “The Last Dictatorship: Betrayal or Consummation?” Hispanic American Historial Review 63 (Feb. 1983), pp. 65–105.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
33 Hook, , The Hero in History, p. 163.Google Scholar
34 J. León Helguera argues that Santander was one of the four men who molded the national development of Colombia in the nineteenth century through the force of their personalities. He writes, “Bolívar liberated the country, Santander organized it, Mosquera altered it, and Núñez reintegrated it.” See his preface to Archivo epistolar dei General Mosquera: Correspondencia con el General Ramón Espina, 1835–1866, Biblioteca de Historia Nacional, vol. 108, (Bogotá, 1966), pp. 23.
35 Crist, Raymond E., “Geography and Caudillismo: A Case Study,” in Hamill, Hugh Jr., Dictatorship in Spanish America (New York, 1973), p. 190.Google Scholar
36 Lynch, John, The Spanish American Revolutions, 1808–1826 (New York, 1973), p. 190.Google Scholar
37 Scobie, James R., Argentina: A City and a Nation (2nd ed; New York, 1971), p. 77.Google Scholar
38 Hook points out that the event-making figure can achieve nothing by himself alone but is dependent on a narrow group of lieutenants or assistants who constitute a “machine” and upon a much broader group in the population—a social class which is tied to him by bonds of interest. The event-making man, much more than the eventful man, is able to achieve independence from this class in whose interest he actually or presumably has been selected to serve, (pp. 166–68). The degree of independence won by Rosas and Páez is debatable, but in the case of Moreno, the New Granadan elites used and discarded him when they had realized their own aims.
39 Helguera, J. León, “The Changing Role of the Military in Colombia,” Journal of Inter-American Studies (July, 1961), p. 351.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
40 Maingot, Anthony P., “Social Structure, Social Status and Civil-Military Conflict in Urban Colombia, 1810–1858,” in Therastrom, Stephan, and Sennett, Richard, eds., Nineteenth-Century Cities (New Haven, 1969), p. 339.Google Scholar
41 Santander to Bolívar, Caribena en Orinoco, October 23, 1818 in Cortázar, Roberto, ed., Cartas y mensajes del General Santander, 10 vols. (Bogotá, 1953–56), 1, p. 93.Google Scholar
42 Colonel Leonard Infante was a black Llanero born in Maturín, Venezuela, who was tried and executed for murder in Bogotá in 1824. The case was controversial because Infante had fought courageously in the War of Independence, and Judge Miguel Peña, also a Venezuelan, would not sign the court sentence approved by the other New Granadan justices. Maingot examines the racial implications of the affair in the article cited above, pp. 317–19.
43 J. N. Moreno to Santander, Pore, January 4, 1833, Corresp., VIII, p. 69–73.
44 Ibid.
45 Santander to Moreno, Bogotá, December 24, 1838, AS, XXIV, p. 81.
46 Ayape, Eugenio, “Misiones de Casanare,” Boletín de Historia y Antigüedades 28 (Sept.-Oct., 1941), 794 Google Scholar; Delgado, Daniel, Excursiones por Casanare (Bogotá, 1910), p. 30.Google Scholar When the North American professor-explorer, Hiram Bingham, passed through Moreno in 1907, only a few buildings were still standing. See his account in Journal of an Expedition across Venezuela and Colombia (New Haven, 1909), p. 159.