Hilarion Daza

Hilarión Daza Groselle (Sucre, January 14, 1840-Uyuni, February 27, 1894) was a Bolivian military and politician, he was president of Bolivia from May 4, 1876 until the December 28, 1879. During his government, the War of the Pacific began, which would be a war between Bolivia and Peru against Chile.

Biography

Origins

Hilarión Daza was born on January 14, 1840 in the city of Sucre in the Department of Chuquisaca into a humble family with limited economic resources belonging to the lower class of the country. His father was the Italian citizen Marcos Grosellé y Delgadillo, who was originally from the Piedmont Region (currently located in northern Italy) and who during the 1830s decided to emigrate from the old continent to the new world in search of new opportunities. of life, choosing to live in Bolivia where he would get to know his partner Juana Daza. It is worth mentioning that at first his last name was & # 34; Grosoli & # 34; but that later it was transformed as & # 34; Grosellé & # 34; .

Very little is known about his parents, but the vast majority of historians agree that Daza's father worked as a mountebank in a circus, similar to an artist who performs acrobatics, pirouettes, jumping and balancing exercises to amuse the public. According to the Bolivian historian Roberto Querejazu (1913-2006) he points to Daza's father as a "man fond of attracting public attention with demonstrations of his muscular strength", however the Bolivian historian Alcides Arguedas Díaz (1879-1946) launches a harsh criticism of the work of Daza's father and describes him only as a simple ""vulgar cholo" who "swallowed frogs and devoured raw meat to win bets in front of the public" who had also inherited an invincible inclination to ostentatious acts of force, cynicism and also the habit of appropriating what belongs to others (like a thief).

As for his mother Juana Daza y Espinosa, all historians agree that she worked as a respectable midwife (private midwife) working from house to house helping pregnant women with the birth of their babies. The Bolivian historian Tomás O'Connor d'Arlach (1853-1932) points out that there is no doubt about the reputation of Daza's mother because "she was a decent lady from society but at the same time she was a woman very poor" and that unfortunately, due to the lack of economic resources, she had not been able to give her son an adequate education as she would have longed for.

Early Years

During his childhood, Hilarión Daza had been characterized as an intelligent boy with lively Creole, but he could only receive a basic education in a public fiscal school where he barely managed to learn to read and write. His childhood grew among the street urchins with whom he would share his childhood antics throughout the 1840s.

Already a teenager in the mid-1850s and according to the historian Querejazu, Daza had already become a robust and ingenious young man who frequented the pelota court to earn a few pesos in bets or in any case working as "Truquero" (cheating in street games). Although Bolivian historian Antonio Díaz Villamil (1897-1948) reveals that during this stage of his life, Daza was a bagatela thief (thief of small things) and that in one of those misdeeds he was captured by the Bolivian police who applied the harsh punishment of lashes that during that time was a very usual and common sanction in Bolivia for adolescents who committed some crimes of theft.

Regarding the change of his paternal surname, it is worth mentioning that Daza himself was the one who decided not to want to bear his father's surname because his gamine friends (who were homeless orphan boys who survived on the street) became mocking him, calling him with the derogatory nickname of "Chocholin" which was his father's nickname and which was also inherited from his son Hilarion. Other versions indicate that when he was very young, Daza could not pronounce his paternal surname Groselle very well, so he could only mention the word "Chocholin", finally staying with said nickname. In the end, Daza just decided to take his mother's last name, Juana Daza.

Military career (1857-1876)

Currently, it is still not known exactly what were the main reasons or causes that made Hilarión Daza decide to join the ranks of the Bolivian Army, but some versions indicate that during one of his feats and misdeeds on the street, Daza was again captured by the Bolivian police, this time being taken to a military barracks in the city of Sucre where he was placed as the last soldier of said regiment in order to apply a corrective measure for Daza's rebellious adolescent. that during that time and at least until the year 1880, the Bolivian army was still not very institutionalized and proof of this is that a simple private could climb from grade to grade until becoming a general, always according to the different political ups and downs of both governments.

Like many other ambitious young people of the same age, social and cultural condition, Daza saw no other way of overcoming that by adopting the arms race in which, in those times (of the nineteenth century) frequent revolts, riots, military uprisings or revolutions against the different governments, where it was normal that one could gain military degrees as well as could lose them all as he joined in time on the victorious side (which he took the side).

Bolivian historian Roberto Querejazu Calvo (La Paz, Bolivia; 1979)

According to Bolivian military historian Julio Díaz Arguedas (1889-1980), Daza's military career officially began in 1857 when, still a young man of just 17 years of age, he joined as a private in the ranks of the Battalion "Montenegro" 3ro de Línea, which at that time was stationed in the city of Sucre.

During the presidency of José María Linares (1808-1861) who ruled Bolivia from 1857 to 1861, Daza was in the army simply as a trooper and once President Linares was ousted from power in a coup of State carried out by his own minister of war José María Achá (1810-1868) in 1861, Daza would be promoted to the rank of company sergeant (second lieutenant) where he would remain in that rank for another three years until 1864 when He was promoted to the rank of sergeant major (lieutenant) because that same year President Achá was also overthrown by another coup d'état but this time led by the dark and feared Colonel Mariano Melgarejo Valencia (1820-1871) who ruled Bolivia in a dictatorial manner. and despotic from the year 1864 to 1871.

In the first months of the government of Melgarejo, Daza was for a short time in passive service (inactive and in civilian life) but he would be reinstated again to the ranks of the Bolivian army but this time with the rank of captain of infantry in July 1865, then in November of that same year he would be promoted to the rank of "higher graduate". The following year, in January 1866, he already held the rank of "most effective" and would finally rise to "graduate commander" in April 1866.

Urgent message to Melgarejo (1868)

In March 1867, Melgarejo had signed the Treaty of Ayacucho with Brazil, which was considered a detrimental and harmful agreement for the interests of the Bolivian state. It is in this way that the Chuquisacan lawyer Mariano Reyes Cardona (1805-1879) who had vainly opposed the signing of said treaty, very indignantly decided on December 17, 1868 to rise up militarily in the city of Sucre against the government of Melgarejo, proclaiming the famous lawyer from Cochabamba Lucas Mendoza de la Tapia (1811-1872) as the new president of Bolivia. Once the revolution broke out in Sucre, the Chuquisacan authorities of that time immediately decided to communicate the news of the riot to the city of La Paz (since Melgarejo was in that city at that time) and they chose an unknown captain named Hilarión as their messenger. Daza to be in charge of urgently taking the message to the city of La Paz.

In a surprisingly fast and amazing journey, Daza managed to reach La Paz in just three days from the city of Sucre.

Thanks to his father's sacrifices, Hilarión entered the arms race at a very young age in the 1860s, where he performed remarkably. He endowed with exceptional willpower and skill.

Initially, Hilarión Daza was a follower of then President Mariano Melgarejo (1864-1871). But in 1870 he began his political career by rising up against his protector, the dictator Mariano Melgarejo, betraying him for 10,000 pesos. He declared himself in favor of Colonel Agustín Morales, under whose government (1871-1872) he assumed command of the famous Colorados Battalion, which would henceforth be his escort and support force to rise to power.

After the assassination of President Agustín Morales in November 1872, he temporarily assumed power, later handing it over to Dr. Tomás Frías Ametller, as he was the president of the Council of State. He later supported the government of Adolfo Ballivián (1873-1874) and when he died, he supported the new internship of Frías, whom he served as Minister of War (1874-1876).

Once promoted to the rank of army general, in 1876, Hilarión Daza revolted against President Tomás Frías Ametller, whom he overthrew, to later assume power dictatorially. He was confirmed as Provisional President, by the Constituent Assembly of 1878, approving by law the acts of his provisional government. With the support of his Colorados Battalion, he imposed his authority, severely repressing the slightest opposition to his government.

In 1878, there was a very strong earthquake in Bolivia followed by a severe drought that caused a famine. Daza proved incapable of facing this problem and that same year he provided Chile with the pretext for this nation to unleash the War of the Pacific, by creating the famous 10-cent tax on saltpeter exploitation.

He married in La Paz, on October 12, 1872, with the distinguished lady Doña Benita Gutiérrez, acting as godparents of the liaison Mr. Agustín Morales, former president of Bolivia and Mr. Casimiro Corral, who was Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bolivia. Doña Raquel Daza y Gutiérrez was born from this marriage, married in first marriage to D. Manuel Zuazo y Calahumana and, in second marriage, to D. Germán Contreras y Sotomayor, officer of the Chilean Army, who was also a diplomat and Deputy of the Republic From Chile. There were descendants Contreras Daza in Santiago.

Pacific War

Daza arriving at Iquique, Chile.

The conflict with Chile had its genesis on Chilean influence in the territory of the Bolivian coast, whose attraction was its Guanera and Salitrera wealth. There, the Salitres and Railroad company of Antofagasta, a company with Chilean capitals, of which they were prominent politicians of that country. Hilarión Daza, once in power, began a policy frontally antichilena. Chileans residing in Antofagasta complained about receiving abuse from Bolivian authorities.

In 1873, the Bolivian government signed an agreement with the agent of the Salitres and Railroad of Antofagasta, an agreement that by the beginning of 1878 was not yet in force, because, according to the Bolivian Constitution, contracts on natural resources on natural resources They should be approved by Congress. This was done by the Bolivian National Constituent Assembly by means of a law, on February 14, 1878, on condition that a tax of 10 cents per quintal de Salitre exported by the company was paid.

Unique article. The transaction held by the executive in 27 November 1873 was approved with the seizure of the Anonymous Company of Salitres and Ferrocarril of Antofagasta on the condition of making at least a tax of ten cents in fifth of exported salitre.

National Constituent Assembly of Bolivia. Act of 14 February 1878.

For Chile, the collection of the tax of 10 cents on the exported quintal explicitly violated Article IV of the 1874 Treaty between Bolivia and Chile, which prohibited raising taxes for 25 years on "Chilean people, industries and capital to work between the 23rd and 24th parallels; residents in that area. Bolivia counter-argued that the company was not a "Chilean citizen" but a mercantile company constituted according to the laws of Bolivia, and subject, therefore, to its ius imperium.

The Chilean owners of the affected company categorically refused to pay said tax, considered abusive, and requested help from the Santiago government, receiving from it a closed defense of their cause, despite the fact that it was a dispute between a private company and the Bolivian state. The Chilean government considered it a bilateral case and endorsed the sui generis of the conflict. Thus began the diplomatic conflict that escalated in magnitude given the lack of diplomatic tact of the Daza government. In the resulting crisis, Peru participated as a mediator, which decided to send a Special Ambassador and Plenipotentiary to Santiago to try to avoid a possible war, through negotiation. The treaty indicated that the controversies that give rise to "the intelligence and execution of the Treaty" should be submitted to arbitration.

On November 17, 1878, the government of La Paz ordered the prefect of the port of the department of Cobija, Severino Zapata, to enforce the 10-cent tax established by the Law of February 14, 1878 (to try to counteract a serious economic crisis in Bolivia) originating the Casus belli. Subsequently, on February 1, 1879, the government of Hilarión Daza rescinded the contract unilaterally, suspending the effects of the law of February 14, 1878 and decided to claim the nitrate mines occupied by the Compañía de Salitres y Ferrocarriles de Antofagasta and proceed to auction off the the assets of the latter, to collect unpaid taxes since February 1878, using their armed forces in the process. The auction was scheduled for February 14, 1879.

Daza naively did not believe that the Chileans could declare war for this small increase of 10 cents, but Chile militarily occupied Antofagasta that same February 14, 1879, frustrating the auction.

Chile also learned from Peruvian diplomats of the secret Treaty between Peru and Bolivia celebrated in 1873 in which Peru supported Bolivia militarily in case of conflict. Chile, by virtue of the latter, declared war on Bolivia on March 5, 1879, and proceeded to occupy the Bolivian coast, asserting old unsolved territorial claims regarding the coast between those parallels.

The entire Bolivian coast was invaded by Chilean troops and Bolivia has since lost its access to the sea. A widely spread version states that Daza celebrated his birthday in those days to coincide with the carnival, and that for several days he hid the news of the Chilean occupation of the coast from him, so as not to interrupt the festivities.

Finally, on February 28, the news of the Chilean invasion of the Littoral broke out in Bolivia. Daza declared on March 1 the rupture of communications with Chile and the seizure of properties of Chilean citizens with the use of force; At the same time, he claimed the support of Peru, in compliance with the Defensive Alliance Treaty signed in 1873.

The Peruvian government urgently sent a diplomatic mission to Santiago to mediate in the Chilean-Bolivian conflict, a mission headed by Minister José Antonio de Lavalle and which arrived in Valparaíso on March 4, but while these efforts were being made For peace, Daza, in an obvious attempt to make the negotiations fail and force Peru to put the Defensive Treaty of 1873 into execution once and for all, declared war on Chile on March 14. Chile did the same.

On March 23, Bolivian and Chilean forces clashed in the battle of Calama or Vado Topáter, with adverse results for the former. Finally, on April 5, Chile declared war on Peru, after this country refused to remain neutral in the conflict.

It is known from certain sources^{[which one?]} that, in the midst of the war, Daza secretly negotiated with confidential Chilean agents to remove Bolivia from the conflict and leave the Peru alone; In exchange, his country would receive compensation for the loss of its coastline, such as the delivery of Tacna and Arica; all of which, for some reason based on fairness, fell through.

Daza withdrew from the first headquarters of the state by decree of April 17, 1879, in order to personally assume command of the army and march in front of the Bolivian forces, leading them towards Tacna, and after the Chilean landing in Pisagua, he marched south to support the Peruvian army stationed in Iquique (Tarapacá province). After a stay in Arica, he continued on his way, but after three days of marching, from the Camarones ravine, he announced to the Peruvian president Mariano Ignacio Prado that his troops refused to continue due to the harsh conditions of the desert, for which he decided return to Arica. "Desert overwhelms, army refuses to advance," his telegram said verbatim (November 16). This decision significantly affected the direction of the war, leaving Peru practically alone in the conflict.

Meanwhile, the Peruvian army stationed in the port of Iquique, under the command of General Juan Buendía, decided to advance inland. Buendía was confident in the arrival of Daza's forces to break the Chilean lines. But the news of Daza's desertion caused a tremendous demoralizing effect on the Peruvian troops, suffering a serious defeat in San Francisco on November 19.

Daza returned to Arica, where he learned of his dismissal as President of Bolivia on December 28 due to a coup d'état by the military leadership amid enormous discontent among the population over the fate of the war. He then moved to Arequipa, where he waited for his family to join him; this done, he departed for Europe. Armed with substantial financial resources, he settled in Paris, France (and briefly in Italy as well). In Bolivia, the coup general Narciso Campero assumed power.

The family of Hilarion Daza in the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.

Postwar

After spending 15 years in France, in 1893 Daza requested permission from the then Bolivian president, Mariano Baptista, to return to his country in order to defend himself against the accusations made against him by his enemies in the Legislative Congress. In reality, after having squandered his fortune in Europe, he had become poor and wanted to retake power in Bolivia, encouraged by some soldiers.

He arrived in Antofagasta (former Bolivian territory) in 1894, from where he later went to Uyuni and then headed for the city of La Paz. He was assassinated by his guards upon his arrival at the Uyuni railway station. As a corollary, Daza was never commemorated with a monument to remember him in his homeland.

Arrived at Uyuni, on February 27, 1894, he was harassed by groups that described him as a traitor, so he was assigned to protect him from a military escort to address a hotel, but on the way, he was killed by his own guards with a discharge of rifles, behind his back. The order had been given, according to reports, by Captain José María Mangudo and Lieutenant Manuel Castillo. It was never asked to establish motives for the crime and, regrettably, to determine those causes which, surely, had pointed to those responsible for the loss of war and therefore the Litoral.

José V. Ochoa.

Since the beginning of the 21st century, a Currence Daza Surveying movement is evident, seeking to support his murder with speculation of all kinds about the revelations (against Narciso Campero and others) that he was supposedly going to do in the Bolivian Congress. Authors such as José Mesa, Teresa Gisbert and Carlos Mesa Gisbert consider that Narciso Campero did not order in the second half of 1879 the entry into action of their forces in Atacam I> required appointment

However, in a manifesto published in 1882 General Eliodoro Camacho, present at the War Board in Camarones, states that

“General Daza is the only person responsible for the withdrawal, for having ordered it against the opinion of several of the leaders at the War Board that took place in the Camarones ravine.”

Eliodoro Camacho.

That the Junta had decided that the Bolivian army would remain in Camarones, where they found sufficient food and water, while with Daza at the head, in a risky mission, a small group would go to Pozo Almonte, where the Bolivian He would take command of the allied army present there and would also direct the movements of the Camarones army. Que Daza accepts the proposal and offers to telegraph Prado to that effect. Later, in correspondence with Miguel de los Santos Taborga, Camacho gives more detail:

The next day I was called to the telegraph office where General Daza was with his Secretary-General. They showed me a telegram received from Arica in which General Prado said little or more or less: “Having received your message from yesterday in which I manifest the resistance of the army to continue the march, I called last night a War Board that has resolved is ordered to General Buendía that attack immediately. Therefore, not only is it dangerous but useless the personal march of you south”.

This convinced me that General Daza did not pass to Prado the agreed communication, but another that the public voice repeated to have been in these terms:
“Overwhelmed desert. Army resists continuing. No snakes.”.

When I pleaded for having missed the agreed, I was answered with a bundle of words. When I asked to know the telegram sent to decipher the misunderstood in which General Prado had fallen, Dr. Gutierrez looked for his pockets and said, "I lost the paper.”.

In the afternoon of the same day came from Pozo Almonte Lieutenant Felipe Niño de Guzmán, with several communications for General Daza, in which General Buendía called him to put himself to the head of the Tarapacá Army. The more of the chiefs we ask General Daza to continue the march. A few thought of the retreat. General Daza just listened to us. He gave no opinion, offering only, in an undecided way, to tell General Prado to telegraph Pozo Almonte to suspend the ordered attack. Soon as I retired from General Daza's accommodation, I heard in the camp the targets run by the music bands. When I asked the motive, I was told that the counterpart had been ordered."

Text taken from the book "Guano, Salitre y Sangre" by Roberto Querejazu Calvo.