Mr. Hart to Mr. Hay.
Bogatá, August 5, 1900.
Sir: I have the honor to inform the Department that on the night of the 31st ultimo Josá Manuel Marroquin, Vice-President of the Republic of Columbia, being at the time in Bogota, declared himself in the exercise of the executive power, named and installed a ministry, and, so far as this was possible, took possession of the Government. This act was made possible by first getting possession of the garrison in Bogota; and this in turn was made possible by an understanding with the commanders. Such commanders as were not favorable to the movement were superseded by friends of Marroquin and held under strict surveillance while the necessary steps were being taken to get possession. There was no resistance whatever, and considering how the matter was accomplished none was reasonably to be expected.
In a manifesto issued on the 1st instant Mr. Marroquin gives as the reasons which moved him to take the step the inability of President Sanclemente to reside at the capital of the Republic and “to give the attention and consecration which the executive action demands in all countries, and especially in those ruled by a government purely presidential as Columbia is,” and the call of public opinion which, for a long time, had asked for the reestablishment of the lawful normal condition. The Vice-President says also that he is reluctant to enter upon the exercise of the executive power, and does so for the good of the country. He declares that he desires to bring to a speedy end the bloody civil war which is dividing the country, and that he means to do this by his solemn promise to respect and cause to be respected the civil rights of all. If, however, his promise in this regard shall not bring about peace, he will prosecute the war with energy to put down the revolution. In conclusion, he calls on all Colombians who love their country to place themselves under the banner of constitutionality and legitimacy.
The first knowledge that President Sanclemente had of the coup d’état was when a Marroquin force arrived at Villeta, President Sanclemente’s temporary residence, a day’s journey from Bogotá, and made him prisoner, together with Rafael M. Palacio, his minister of government. The garrison at Villeta would have defended President [Page 407] Sanclemente, but since the force sent against him was far superior to his own, President Sanclemente refused to have any bloodshed there. He was allowed to remain a prisoner in his house.
On the 3d instant President Sanclemente issued a protest to the nation, reciting what had happened, and commenting on the manifesto of Mr. Marroquin. In the protest President Sanclemente says he is authorized by the constitution and the law to reside outside the capital. He asks who had made Marroquin a judge in the matter. He says that Mr. Marroquin has violated the constitution which he had sworn to support. Speaking directly to his fellow-citizens, President Sanclemente says: “if your forefathers did not consent to be governed dictatorily by the great Bolivar, the liberator of five nations, will you consent to be so governed by Mr. Marroquin and by those who support so arbitrary an act? Will you regard with indifference that the legitimate government of the nation shall continue to be outraged? and will the army, which has given so many proofs of loyalty, so regard it?”
President Sanclemente’s friends lost no time in sending couriers all over the country to advise their partisans of what had happened. Up to this moment there is no means of knowing the strength of either the Marroquin government or the Sanclemente government outside of Bogota and its near environments. There has been a general destruction of telegraph lines by the Liberal revolutionists, and where lines do exist, if they reach Bogota they are of course absolutely controlled by the Marroquin government.
I endeavored at once to advise the Department by telegraph of the coup d’état, and was told that there was no connection. To-day, however, a telegram to the Department, confirmed elsewhere, was accepted from me, with the promise to forward it at once, and with the explanation that it might suffer a delay of two or three days. At the same time I know that no friend of the Sanclemente government has been able to send or to receive a message by telegraph. * * * The Nationalists say now that, as they had almost defeated the revolution, the Conservatives thought the time opportune to accomplish their end by a coup d’état. The Conservatives explain that the Liberal revolution was making headway, and that they took charge of the Government to save it from the Liberals.
At this writing the situation is very obscure and I am not able to predict its development. There has been no disturbance whatever in Bogotá; nor, so far as I am aware, has there been any collision anywhere between the forces of Sanclemente and the forces of Marroquin.
I am, etc.,