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Lehigh Preserve Institutional Repository Colombia and Venezuela: A Tense Relationship Has Hopes for Cooperation Pearce, Sarah 2013 Find more at https://preserve.lib.lehigh.edu/ This document is brought to you for free and open access by Lehigh Preserve. It has been accepted for inclusion by an authorized administrator of Lehigh Preserve. For more information, please contact [email protected]. COLOMBIA AND VENEZUELA: A TENSE RELATIONSHIP HAS HOPES FOR COOPERATION Sarah Pearce Introduction territorial conflicts continued into the 1980s, but the nature of tensions between Colombia The deposition of King Ferdinand VII and Venezuela changed with the election of and the disappearance of the Spanish monarchy Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez in 1998. in 1808 provided the necessary momentum Chávez’s ambitious plan of becoming the leader for Venezuelan-born Simón Bolívar to lead the of a unified Latin American region (similar to Spanish colonies in South America to pursue Bolívar’s Gran Colombia) caused him to support independence. In order to have a strong unified Colombia’s most prominent guerilla group, the force to fight against Spain, Bolívar united pres- Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colom- ent-day Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, and bia (FARC). Chávez supported the FARC because Panama under a single nation called Gran they considered themselves followers of Simón Colombia in 1819. Although Bolívar hoped that Bolívar, the original leader of the independence Gran Colombia would be maintained after the and unification movements in South America. independence movement, difficulties soon However, his support for the FARC’s activities emerged that caused Venezuela to declare inde- created intense security concerns within Colom- pendence in 1831. Ever since the dissolution bia and along the Colombia/Venezuela border. of Bolívar’s Gran Colombia, Colombia and In addition, Chávez’s goal of a united Latin Venezuela have experienced tensions that have America conflicted with Colombia’s alliance led them to the brink of war. with the United States at the beginning of the Immediately following the dissolution of twenty-first century. Colombia allowed the Gran Colombia in 1831, conflict originated United States to set up military bases in its between Colombia and Venezuela over land and territory in order to help fight guerilla and drug maritime boundaries and border disputes. These activity, a move Chávez considered a violation 61 of Venezuelan sovereignty that would inhibit his From the initial creation of Gran Colom- plans of a united region of solely Latin Ameri- bia, however, Bolívar maintained an attitude of can countries. These conflicts led to a freeze doubt about its long-term survival (Collier, in diplomatic relations and an arms race that p. 59). Gran Colombia was successful in lib- caused preparations for war. erating South American territories from Span- In this article, I examine the shared his- ish colonial rule, and both Venezuelan and tory of Colombia and Venezuela under Gran Colombian army camps answered to Bolívar as Colombia as groundwork for analyzing both the the Supreme Commander of both armies dur- historical tensions and current conflicts that ing battle. However, after independence was have arisen since the dissolution of Gran Colom- achieved, conflicts of representation and bia in 1831. Despite the historical territorial dis- national identity replaced the militaristic unity putes and the tensions emerging after the previously felt during the struggle for inde- election of President Chávez in 1998, I claim pendence (Bushnell, p. 50). For example, com- that it is unlikely that war will erupt between petition occurred soon after independence Colombia and Venezuela. Both countries have between the lawyers in Colombia and the recently begun to realize the benefits of coop- military officials in Venezuela over who would eration, and although tensions may remain due have the authority to rule Gran Colombia. In to domestic political concerns, cooperation will Colombia, the lawyers and legislators resented prevent any permanent rupture of relations. the burden of the violent and dominant Venezuelan military on the national budget, The Shared History of Colombia and while the Venezuelan military officials criti- Venezuela cized the Colombian lawyers and legislators for enjoying the fruits of the military’s hard work The relationship between Colombia and (Safford and Palacios, pp. 115–16). In addition, Venezuela dates back to Spanish explorations of the heterogeneous masses that existed within the 1500s. With the goal of improving Spain’s each territory of Gran Colombia, such as the influence over its colonies in South America, pardos1 of Venezuela and the mestizos of the Bourbon regime created the New King- Colombia, made the formation of a single Gran dom of Granada in 1717, combining present-day Colombian “national identity” impossible, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Panama. because each population found its nationality However, the Venezuelan-born General Simón within its home country (Lynch, pp. 219–20). Bolívar recognized Spain’s weakness following As Bolívar admitted, “The south hates the the deposition of King Ferdinand VII in 1808 north, the coast hates the highlands, Venezuela as a ripe time to lead an independence move- hates Cundinamarca”2 (Lynch, p. 218). This ment throughout all of South America. After obvious lack of cohesion within the republic of failed attempts to liberate his home territory Gran Colombia proved a serious barrier to its of Venezuela in the early 1800s, Bolívar sought survival. a military alliance between Venezuela’s neigh- Perhaps the most important division boring territories that would be similar to the between Colombia and Venezuela, however, New Kingdom of Granada established by the Bourbon regime. He believed that the indepen- dence of one territory depended on the libera- 1Pardo is another term for mulatto, or of mixed white tion of another, such that joining the territories and black descent. This is in contrast to mestizo, which of Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Panama refers to mixed white and Indian descent (Lynch, p. 342). The differences of ethnicity between these groups created into a military alliance was necessary to end- difficulty in combining them to form a single national ing Spanish rule (Safford and Palacios, pp. 56, origin or national identity. 105). Bolívar successfully unified the territories 2Cundinamarca is one of the 32 departments plus the in 1819, calling it Gran Colombia. This union, Capital District by which Colombia is organized. Cundi- believed by Bolívar to be a crucial step in fight- namarca surrounds the Capital District, which contains Colombia’s capital, Bogotá. The reference to Cundinamarca ing for independence, would also provide him in Simón Bolívar’s quote refers to the capital region in with a large enough territory to successfully Bogotá that ruled over all of Gran Colombia during its exis- defend against future foreign invasions. tence from 1819 to 1830. 62 stemmed from the placement of the capital of Territorial Conflicts Gran Colombia in Bogotá, Colombia. The sheer size of Gran Colombia made Bogotá Recovery of Lost Territory nearly inaccessible to Venezuela, which robbed Venezuelans of adequate physical rep- Territorial conflicts were common in resentation in the capital. In addition, the South American countries during the colonial constitution drafted by Simón Bolívar in 1821 times, when boundaries were loosely defined denied individual territories from exercising in the core regions because European settlers discretionary power over internal affairs, were more attracted to peripheral coastal lands. requiring that all decisions be referred to As a result, when South American colonies Bogotá. Venezuelans soon came to regard began fighting for independence, confusion Colombian politicians as foreign masters quickly arose over the loosely defined borders and themselves a colony, because Bogotá in the core of the country (Child, 1985, p. 9). was the center of offices and opportunities for The countries united under Gran Colombia both the bureaucracy and public works pro- were particularly affected by these loosely grams (Lynch, p. 220). It was not long until defined borders, as independence was won when José Antonio Páez, commander-general of Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Panama Venezuela, began to receive support for his were considered one territory. The breakup of open resentment of Gran Colombia’s political Gran Colombia, therefore, created great uncer- structure. Despite Bolívar’s desperate tainty over boundaries and initiated tensions attempts to maintain Gran Colombia, Páez between Colombia and Venezuela. used his support within Venezuela to lead a After declaring independence from Gran separatist movement, culminating with Colombia, both Venezuela and Colombia sought Venezuela’s secession from Gran Colombia in to ease the ambiguity over territorial borders 1831 (Safford and Palacios, pp. 117–29; Lynch, with the Treaty of Pombo-Michelena in 1833. pp. 226–30). While the treaty was ratified by Colombia, The dissolution of Gran Colombia cre- Venezuela refused to sign it, regarding the ated immediate challenges for the previously provisions of the treaty as an unacceptable united territories. One of the greatest challenges loss of territory (Anderson). The two countries was the establishment of territorial bound- then requested assistance from King Alfonso XII aries (Safford and Palacios, p. 132). Because of Spain in 1881,