Red Against Blue: The Liberal Party in Colombian Politics, 1863 - 1899

280 Pages·1981·21.334 MB·English

by  Helen Delpar

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Red Against Blue
The Liberal Party in Colombian Politics
1863-1899
HELEN DELPAR
TheUniversityofAlabamaPress
Tuscaloosa,Alabama
Library ofCongress Cataloging in Publication Data
Delpar, Helen.
Red against blue.
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1. Partido Liberal (Colombia)-History. 2. Colombia
-Politics and government-1863-1885. 3. Colombia
Politics and govemment-1886-1903. 4. Partido Con
servador (Colombia)-History. I. Title.
JL2898.L5D44 329.9'861 79-19081
ISBN978-0-8173-5615-6(pbk. :alk.paper)
ISBN978-0-8173-8388-6(electronic)
Copyright © 1981 by
The University of Alabama Press
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
Thisbookwas keyboarded for scannertypesetting
byRuth KibbeyandDebbieDavis.
To My Parents

Contents
List of Tables viii
Preface ix
1. The Origins of Colombian Liberalism: A Backward Glance 1
2. Party Alignment in Nineteenth-Century Colombia: A Regional
Survey 14
3. A Liberal Profile 43
4. The Evolution of Liberal Thought 60
5. The Political Process in a Federal Setting 84
6. The Crisis of Liberalism 110
7. In the Role of the Vanquished 133
8. Road to Revolution 158
Conclusion 185
Notes 192
Bibliography 237
Index 258
Tables
1. Customs Returns for Three Caribbean Ports to the Nearest
Peso in Selected Years for the Second Half of the
Nineteenth Century 17
2A. Presidential Voting, 1848 and 1856: The Coast 19
2B. Presidential Voting, 1848 and 1856: Four Coastal Cities 20
3A. Presidential Voting, 1848 and 1856: Cauca 24
3B. Presidential Voting, 1848 and 1856: Selected Areas in Cauca 25
4A. Presidential Voting, 1848 and 1856: Cundinamarca and
Tolima 30
4B. Presidential Voting, 1848 and 1856: Provinces of Bogota, Neiva,
and Mariquita 31
4C. Presidential Voting, 1848 and 1856: Selected Areas in
Cundinamarca 32
5. Presidential Voting, 1848 and 1856: Boyaca 34
6. Presidential Voting, 1848 and 1856: Santander 35
7A. Presidential Voting, 1848 and 1856: Antioquia 39
7B. Presidential Voting, 1848 and 1856: Selected Areas in
Antioquia 40
8. Rate of Exchange, Colombian Pesos per 100 U.S. Dollars 136
9. Food Prices in Bogota, 1878-1888 138
Preface
In 1979 Colombia was the only Latin American country whose political
system was dominated by two political parties-the Liberal and the Con
servative, associatedwiththe colorsred and blue, respectively-that could
trace their origin to the mid-nineteenth century. Elsewhere the political
parties born in that era had either disappeared, as in Brazil, or had been
reduced to insignificance, as appeared to be the case in Uruguay. Despite,
and indeed perhaps because of, their longevity, the Colombian parties
were generally viewed negatively by political scientists.
Contemporary students of the Colombian parties tend to view them as
instruments ofa narrow social elite which possesses most ofthe power and
material resources available to Colombian society. This situation is either
interpretedapocalypticallyorfatalistically. Intheformercasethe partiesare
seen as blindly suppressing the forces of change in Colombian society in
order to retain for their masters the inordinate privileges which they have
held for generations. The implicit or explicit expectation is that eventually
the explosionwillcome andthe traditional partieswillbeconsumedlike the
sinners of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Other observers, while also seeing the parties as elitist, tend to evaluate
thisasoneofthoseinevitable,unpleasantfactsofpoliticallifewhichislikely
to go on indefinitely, a culturally determined shackle on the possibilities of
economic, social, and political development. Thus the fatalistic observers
share with the apocalyptically oriented the conviction that the traditional
Colombian party system is on balance pernicious, while they differ in their
expectations as to its fate.1
Regardless oftheir overall merit, such value-laden assessments at times
hamper understanding of the functions performed by Colombia's parties
and of the workings of the party system, about which in reality little is
known. Furthermore, existing studies are often weakened by the practice
ofsubmittingColombianpartiesandpoliticianstotypologiesmore applica
ble to other political systems. Another source ofweakness is the shallow
ness of academic knowledge of the Colombian party system. While the
work of scholars such as Robert H. Dix, James L. Payne, and Mario
Latorre Rueda has provided valuable insights into contemporary politics,
analysis of the era before 1930 has barely begun.
The Colombian works which deal with nineteenth-century politics are
mainly memoirs and biographies, genres which do not lend themselves to
theanalysisofentiresystems. Moreover, muchofthe Colombianhistorical
writingismarredbyinadequateresearchorbypartisanpassion. Numerous
historians in the United States have also explored topics in nineteenth
century Colombian history, but only a handful have dealt with primarily
political themes.