ENSAYO Bicycling as a Response to La Violencia: The First Vuelta a Colombia, January 5-17, 1951 Jane M. Rausch/ University of Massachusetts Amherst Sport historians have long recognized the relationship between most popular sport and why Colombians have embraced their sport and nationalism. As suggested by the editors of the pedalistas (cyclists) with a passion unique in Latin America.2 recent anthology Sports and Nationalism in Latin/o America, more often than not, sports have been “a key arena for offi- cial forms of nationalism aimed at integrating a given society The 1940s: Political Turbulence and the Beginning of the in the face of internal differences or for schemes aimed at La Violencia taking advantage of sports’ deep popularity to obtain political gains and legitimization” (Fernández L’Hoeste, McKee Irvin, In the first half of the twentieth century, the traditional- Poblete, 2015, 2). Even in Colombia, a country broken into ly intense animosity between the Conservative and Liberal disparate regions that geographically reinforce the emergence parties rose to a fever pitch after the disputed election of 1946 of distinctive cultures, sports at various times have surmount- brought the Conservative candidate Mariano Ospina to the ed this obstacle to play a crucial role in the establishment of a presidency. Two years into his administration the murder sense of national identity.1 on April 9, 1948 of populist Liberal leader Jorge Eliécer Gaitán touched off a riot of unprecedented proportions that One of these critical moments occurred in January 1951, later became known as the Bogotazo. On the initial (though when in the midst of a brutal civil war known as La Violencia, erroneous) assumption that Ospina’s government had ordered thirty-one cyclists embarked on the first Vuelta a Colombia, Gaitán’s murder; the event further inflamed hatreds between a bicycle race modeled after the Tour de France. For fifteen Conservatives and Liberals creating a de facto civil war that days accounts of their progress over 1,254 kilometers of Ospina’s government was powerless to control. Tensions roads— more often paths of sand, mud, and stone— through heightened on November 9, 1949 when Ospina Pérez closed Cundinamarca, Tolima, Viejo Caldas and Valle del Cauca Congress, decreed a state of siege, limited civil liberties and replaced daily reports of atrocities occurring throughout the assumed discretionary powers. These draconian moves were country. Thanks to the development of radio (a medium that followed in 1950 by the election of ultra Conservative Laure- like sports became another method of binding Colombian ano Gómez in a contest boycotted by the Liberals (Rausch, regions together), commentator Carlos Arturo Rueda, aided 2013, 30). by Julio César Cortés and Álvaro Muñoz, accompanied the cyclists in his own truck and broadcast details of the race On January 1, 1950 president-elect Gómez delivered a new using a transmitter and telephone lines. Rueda’s minute-by- year’s greeting to the nation that promised a bright future if minute account of the Vuelta’s progress captivated national everyone would work together in a spirit of patriotic harmony. attention. As Patricia Londoño writes, “His ability to color- Unfortunately, especially in Andean rural areas La Violencia fully describe different aspects of the route and the efforts of only intensified, and the death toll during Gómez’ first year in individual cyclists enthralled listeners throughout the coun- office reached 50,000 (Henderson 2001, 322). Expanding into try and for a short-lived period overrode deep-seated polit- new regions (eventually all of Colombia except the Carib- ical feuds and animosities”(Londoño Vega, Londoño Vélez, bean area was affected), the conflict increasingly assumed 1989, Iv: 370). the nature of a class struggle as peasants defied the efforts of landowners and their hired thugs to eject them from their After briefly reviewing the political realities of Colombia in parcels, and Communist Party activists began organizing the 1950s, this essay traces the history of Colombian cycling uprooted peasants into self-defense strongholds. The period in the first half of the twentieth century and the simultane- between 1949 and 1953 saw a rise of resistance in guerril- ous development of radio that was creating an audience for la zones inhabited by peasants and fugitives fleeing from sport spectacles. Presented in this context, the analysis of the regions marked by anarchy or terror, many of which were January 1951 Vuelta that follows offers a new perspective on located in the llanos, the plains covering vast expanses in the the policies adopted by the Conservative President Laureano eastern part of the country. As Robert Dix points out, “The Gómez during the Violencia. Based on contemporary sourc- guerrilla bands were spontaneous in origin, restricted in their es, it also seeks to explain why professional cycling emerged range of operation, and limited in their goals—which were second only to soccer, known locally as fútbol, as the nation’s Revista de Estudios Colombianos No. 52 (julio-diciembre de 2018), ISSN 2474-6819 (Online) 16 BICYCLING AS A RESPONSE TO LA VIOLENCIA often those of self-defense or revenge against local political state-controlled radio in which governments monopolized enemies or local officials” (Dix 1966, 322). the content of programs and financed operations by licens- ing each radio station and collecting from it a monthly or On October 28, 1951, Gómez suffered severe heart attack annual fee. The second model, adopted by the United States, that forced him to relinquish power to Vice President Roberto gave private interests a free rein to broadcast whatever Urdaneta Arbelaéz. Nevertheless, he continued to direct the they wished, while relying on advertisements to pay for the government from his sickbed. Gómez attempted “to restore programs. Before 1934 Colombian leaders experimented by order through the principle of centralized, vertical and hierar- mandating a state-controlled system, but after that year, when chical authority” by turning back the clock on reforms promot- there were already 5,000 receivers in the country, commercial ed by previous Liberal administrations, but his policies were radio expanded the listening audience and gradually dominat- only partially successful (Osterling, 1989, 91). Although the ed the airways (Pareja 1984, 16; Uribe Celis 1992, 67).4 national economy improved, wages lagged behind prices; the government forcibly broke up strikes, and for laborers it was From the beginning of 1930s, Colombian stations explored the worst of times. Given this chaotic situation, the simulta- the feasibility of covering major sports events. The coun- neously emergence of professional sports such as cycling and try received sports transmissions first via telephone from the soccer (largely overlooked by scholars of the period) offered US in 1922, but, with the introduction of broadcasting using a welcome distraction from the grim realities of daily life.3 transmitters and FM frequency modulation, it was possible for Colombian sportscasters located at an actual sport arena to narrate events back to a central broadcasting station. When The Introduction of Radio in the Early Twentieth Century automobile races, soccer contests, and international competi- tions such as the Bolivarian Games of 1938 could be described Notwithstanding occasional political turbulence, many as they were happening via radio, the programs, sponsored by aspects of modern life had made their way into Colombia advertising from a multitude of companies, quickly attracted during the first half of the twentieth century. One of the most a massive following. far-reaching developments was the adoption of relatively simple equipment that could transmit by radio all types of By the 1950s, an estimated half a million Colombians messages. By the 1930s Colombia had access to technology owned receivers. President Gómez astutely realized that radio that permitted long distance radio diffusion. This new medi- provided the most immediate way to reach out to all regions um quickly emerged as a means of communication that could of the country and that sports were an excellent way to distract circumvent geographical obstacles that had long bedeviled the public from accounts of horrific violence sweeping the national integration (Castrillón Gallego 1915, 3). country. Athletic competitions filled 25 percent of commer- cial programming during his regime while radio emerged Commercial radio stations began operations in the Unit- as the primary vehicle the promotion of soccer, boxing, and ed States in the 1920s. In those years, Colombians, if they athletic contests, and for building popular cults around play- owned short-wave receivers, could hear programs broadcast ers and teams (Pareja 1984, 82). from the US as well as Mexico, Buenos Aires, and Havana. On April 2, 1923 President Pedro Nel Ospina officially inau- Sports commentators played a key role in this devel- gurated the first national radio station in Engativá, Cundi- opment. The most prominent was Carlos Arturo Rueda namarca. His successor, Miguel Abadía Méndez authorized Calderón (1918-1995), who is generally regarded as the public radio broadcasting over station HJN or Radio Nacion- “inventor” of Colombian sports narration (El Tiempo, June al in Bogotá on August 7, 1929. The following December the 23, 1995). Rueda Calderón was born in San José, Costa Rica first privately owned station, KHD “La Voz de Barranquilla” on October 28, 1918, the son of Alfredo Rueda, a politician went on air and, in January 1930 Gustavo Uribe Thornschmidt from Santander who had relocated to Costa Rica during the and Roberto Jaramillo established the first commercial radio turmoil caused the War of a Thousand Days (1899-1903). station, HKF. On February 28, 1931 President Enrique Olaya The Rueda Calderón family later moved on to Caracas where Herrera issued Decree no. 423 designed to facilitate the Carlos at age 11 narrated his first game—a baseball contest process of radio licensing and operation, and, in 1935 Cine played by his school—for Radio Caracas.