Jose Antonio Paez
José Antonio Páez Herrera (Curpa, Captaincy General of Venezuela, Spanish Empire, June 13, 1790—New York, May 6, 1873) was a hero of Venezuelan independence. He was a general, head of the national army and military head of the department of Venezuela. In 1826, he led the separatist movement known as La Cosiata , which separated Venezuela from Gran Colombia, becoming an independent republic.
Early Years
He was born in Curpa, Province of Barinas, on June 13, 1790 (currently the Portuguese State). He came from a family of Canarian origin, humble and large. He was the son of Juan Victorio Páez and María Violante Herrera, a native of Cuara (South of Quibor, Lara). He lived in a modest house next to the river in his hometown. He studies first letters at the private school of Gregoria Díaz, in Guama. Along with his brother-in-law, Bernardo Fernández, he performs some minor trade tasks. In 1807, when he was returning from Cabudare, he was robbed in the forest (or Sitio) of Mayurupí by 4 criminals; Páez killed one of them and put the others to flight. This fact forced him to escape to the Apure plains, where he worked as a laborer in the La Calzada herd, owned by Manuel Antonio Pulido. He married Dominga Ortiz on July 1, 1809, dedicating himself to the cattle trade, learned the the trade of the llanero and became an expert horseman in handling the lasso and the spear.
Wonderful Campaign
Between 1810 and 1813 he belonged to the cavalry squadron led by Manuel Antonio Pulido, to fight against the Spanish government, he worked for the royalist governor of Barinas, Antonio Tíscar y Pedrosa, and after rejecting a promotion to captain, he returned to the forces Pulido Republicans. He advances to the city of Barinas, which had been abandoned by the Spanish as a result of Simón Bolívar's Admirable Campaign.
Battle of Las Queseras del Medio
Between January and April 1819, Páez fought the Apure campaign together with Simón Bolívar against the troops of Pablo Morillo, who had invaded Apure. In that campaign Páez fought the battles of Caujaral, Cañafistola, Trapiche de la Gamarra and Las Cocuizas.
On April 2, 1819, the battle of Las Queseras del Medio took place. The armies of Bolívar and Morillo were facing each other divided by the Arauca River. Páez decided to attack Morillo by surprise and crossed the river with about 150 lancers heading to Morillo's camp to provoke him into a battle. This highlights his cavalry under the command of Narciso López, about 1500 horsemen in total, to destroy Páez. Páez undertook the withdrawal keeping in mind using one of his favorite strategies and one that had given him results so many times, which was to simulate a withdrawal and then turn the enemy's faces to face him on better ground. Indeed, Páez withdrew pursued by the royalists until at the opportune moment he shouted to his troops: "Come back faces!" falling on his pursuers and destroying the royalist cavalry fleeing back to his camp. Las Queseras was the greatest triumph of General Páez's military career: in recognition of his action, Bolívar decorated him with the Order of Liberators the next day.
After the Apure campaign ended with the withdrawal of Morillo to the town called Calabozo, Bolívar began the Liberation Campaign of Nueva Granada and Páez was entrusted with security and strategic reserve functions, monitoring Morillo's movements and cutting off in conjunction with the army from the east a possible attack by Morillo on Bolívar's forces.
Battle of Carabobo
From April 28, 1821, the operations that would culminate in the battle of Carabobo began. Páez left Achaguas on May 10 to meet him with Bolívar at La Casa Blanquera and the other divisions of the Liberation Army. On June 24, the battle that ensured the independence of Venezuela was fought. Páez commanded the First Division with which he executed a flanking movement of the royalist positions to the north. After a tough fight with the Burgos and Hostalrich battalions, the British Hunters hold the line while Páez with the cavalry forces the pass, enters the savannah and attacked the Spanish infantry from their rear. La Torre takes refuge in Puerto Cabello with about 500 soldiers. Bolívar promotes Páez on the same battlefield to General in Chief of the Colombian army, and would give him the title of "the first spear in the world".
In this battle the Spanish lost 65% of their troops; the survivors took refuge in the castle of Puerto Cabello, which was the last stronghold of the Spanish in Venezuelan territory until they were expelled from there by Páez in 1823.
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Military chief of the Department of Venezuela
Shortly after the Battle of Carabobo, Bolívar named Páez commander-in-chief of the military district that included the provinces of Caracas, Barquisimeto, Barinas, and Apure. Páez left Valencia for the plains of Calabozo to end a royalist uprising instigated by Francisco Tomás Morales who had taken refuge in Puerto Cabello with the remains of the royalist army. That same year, after having put down the rebellion, Páez returned to Valencia from where he watched over the site of Puerto Cabello. Due to an epidemic that struck his army causing many casualties, Páez returned with his troops to Valencia at the beginning of 1822. On August 11, he defeated Morales in the battle of Naguanagua near the homonymous population, after having left Puerto Cabello east. in order to take Valencia. Shortly after Morales leaves with a flotilla bound for La Guajira to try to invade Venezuela from the west but is defeated in the naval battle of Lake Maracaibo on July 24, 1823. Páez closes the siege of Puerto Cabello and on November 7 storm the last royalist positions in the city.
Confrontation with Bogotá
In 1825 there was a state of emergency in Venezuela due to the activity of some royalist guerrillas and the possibility of a Spanish invasion from Cuba, these events motivated the government to decree a military conscription. Páez complied with the recruitment order but some excesses of his recruiters and the enmity of the municipality of Caracas with him, bring an accusation from the municipality to the central government of Bogotá for outrages. Páez was removed from his post as commanding general of the Department of Venezuela and recalled to Bogotá to face trial. Initially willing to refute the charges, Páez due to pressure from influential leaders including Miguel Peña Páez changed his mind after Valencia's favorable pronouncement, where they disowned the new commanding general Juan Escalona and urged Páez to remain in command. The movement, known as La Cosiata spread through a good part of the department and was close to breaking out in a civil war, until Bolívar, who came from Peru, met with Páez on January 1, 1827. and on the 19th of the same month, he decreed a pardon for all those involved and named him the civil and military chief of Venezuela.
Páez emerged from the movement strengthened, reinstated as general commander of the department and seen as the man who could confront the policy forged from Bogotá by Francisco de Paula Santander.
During his stay in Caracas, Bolívar explained the plan for the invasion of Cuba that would be commanded by Páez with some 10,000 infantry and 1,000 horsemen. The plan was not carried out.
Break with Bolívar and Colombia
The years that finally followed the La Cosiata movement saw the intensification of separatist feelings with Páez as the top leader of those who wanted secession. At the end of 1829, an assembly gathered in the convent of San Francisco in Caracas, ignored the authority of Bolívar and the Colombian government, and handed over power to Páez, who in a letter addressed to Bolívar urged him to accept the separation of Venezuela.
First term of government
José Antonio Páez, who had been exercising the functions of military civilian chief of the department of Venezuela (Caracas, Carabobo, Barquisimeto, Barinas and Apure) since 1822, a position that was confirmed to him by the municipality of Valencia on December 30, 1826, and ratified by Bolívar in the same year, he rose up against the authority of Simón Bolívar and established a Provisional Government on December 28, 1830 by becoming Head of the Administration, and at the same time issued a decree where he called for the election of deputies for a Constituent Congress that would meet in Valencia on April 31, 1831.
.On January 29, 1830, the primary Assemblies were opened for the appointment of the electors who were to designate the Deputies to the Constituent Congress in each Province. Due to the lack of the legal number of deputies, since only 33 of the 48 elected attended, the installation of the Constituent Congress of Venezuela took place on May 6, 1830 in the city of Valencia, and on the same day, the congressmen decided that, « until something else is resolved", General José Antonio Páez would continue in the performance of the functions of the Executive Branch.
The Constituent Congress of Venezuela sanctioned on September 22, 1830 the Constitution that was to govern the new Republic of Venezuela, which entered into force the same month. The first Constitutional Congress of the Republic of Venezuela was installed in the city of Valencia on March 18, 1831, and on the 24th of the same month, the Electoral Records were examined by the Senate and legal scrutiny was carried out to elect the President of the Republic.
As expected, for the first constitutional period of four years, General José Antonio Páez was elected President of the Republic, who obtained 136 votes (86.07%) of the 158 voters who voted. This election was nothing more than the recognition of a situation that had been manifesting itself since 1826, since since that year, Páez held material power, and the Republic of 1831, was nothing more than the "military expression of the caudillo llanero", with the support of landowners and the anti-Bolivarian military.
The following day, the vote was held to elect the first Vice President of the Republic, and since none of the candidates obtained a legal majority, the election was perfected and Diego Bautista Urbaneja was appointed for two years. On April 11, 1831, Páez took the legal oath as Constitutional President of Venezuela; a fragment of his speech that day upon taking office:
The truth is that one of the best periods of our history is opened, and precisely in terms of the political and moral organization of the Republic. Prudence, firmness, probity, sagaz appreciation of the impossibility of separating himself by then from the military leader, but at the same time courageous purpose of monitoring and reducing it; laborious and consequent enthusiasm for working for an effective public administration and balancing freedom and order, such were the virtues of that generation, which succeeded in turning into a patriotic and legalist movement the dismemberment of Colombia, initiated...
For the presidential elections of the period 1835-1839, President Páez supported General Carlos Soublette. On January 28, 1833, the Constitutional Congress met and voted to elect the Vice President of the Republic for the period 1833-1837. The votes of the electors were distributed thus; General Carlos Soublette 52 (29.21%), Dr. Andrés Narvarte 31 (17.41%), General Bartolomé Salom 21 (11.79%).
As none of the candidates obtained two thirds of the votes required by law, Congress held a new election between Soublette and Narvarte, the latter being elected Vice President of the Republic. President Páez ruled in relative peace during his term, achieving a mild recovery in the war-ravaged economy. However, he had to face revolutions, such as the one led in the East by General José Tadeo Monagas; that of Caracas against the Mantuanos in 1831, and that of Gabante in 1834, and difficulties of a political nature, sponsored by disgruntled soldiers: some for not directly intervening in the public administration, others by civil groups and members of the university community, supporting the physician José María Vargas despite his reluctance to accept his nomination. The military discontent with the regime promoted the candidacy of General Santiago Mariño.
Second term of government
Páez is elected President for the second time in the 1838 elections, he obtained 212 votes in total out of 222 second degree voting votes. During his period, Páez deals with matters of defense and transportation, as well as the effects of the international economic crisis of 1838 and the growing opposition of the Liberal Party founded in 1840.
Páez came to amass a considerable fortune, owning five herds: San Pablo, El Frío, La Yeguera, Mata Totumo and Mata Gorda. The Liberal Party grew with the preaching of politicians like Antonio Leocadio Guzmán, Ezequiel Zamora and Napoleón Sebastián Arteaga.
In 1846, during the government of Carlos Soublette, a conservative like Páez, a popular rebellion broke out in the valleys of Aragua, Carabobo, Guárico, the western plains, and the eastern plains of the country. The rebellion quickly gained momentum and Páez went out to fight it as general in chief of the constitutional army. Páez's forces, after several months without achieving a significant victory, captured the leaders of the revolt in 1847: Ezequiel Zamora and José Francisco Rangel.
Exile
Between 1850 and 1859 Páez traveled the world meeting important people. On May 28, 1859, he arrived on the island of Saint Thomas where he was received by the authorities and residents of the island, he would stay for a short time until leaving for the United States where he visited Philadelphia in July of that year and then New York in August.. He then travels to New Jersey in September and to return to Philadelphia. In New York he reviews on October 29 of that city in his honor. In February 1851 he leaves for Baltimore where he is again feted and from there to Washington.
He returned to New York where he lived until 1854 and made a trip to Mexico where he was received in October of that year by President Antonio López de Santa Anna who named him "Member of the Order of Guadalupe of Mexico". In 1856 he traveled to France and was received by Emperor Napoleon III in the sovereign's room. He then continues his journey through central Europe and in Munich he is received by Prince Ludwig of Bavaria. He finally returns to New York that year.
In 1858 he received news of the overthrow of the Monagas by the March Revolution. The new government restores all his titles and honors to Páez and lifts his sentence of exile, inviting him to return to the country to take charge of the army and pacification. After being fired from New York with a military parade commanded by General George McClellan, Páez left the city and arrived in Venezuela in January 1859, being received with large parties in Puerto Cabello, Valencia and Caracas.
The Return to Venezuela
Upon arriving in Venezuela on December 18, 1858, the country experienced a great political and social upheaval from monaguist, liberal, and federalist groups, dissatisfied with the government of President Julián Castro. At the outbreak of the Federal War on February 20, 1859, in Coro, Páez was appointed chief of operations for Carabobo but resigned in April after not obtaining the powers he demanded. He returns to Caracas on May 6 where he is commissioned as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of Venezuela to the United States for an unsuccessful diplomatic mission.
When he returned to Venezuela in 1860, the executive Manuel Felipe de Tovar ruled, who appointed him general commander of all the government armies. When Pedro Gual assumed the presidency and appointed Ángel Quintero, former minister and secretary of Páez, as his deputy, a campaign led by Pedro José Rojas began with the slogan "Quintero is war, Páez is peace" as a rejection of a Quintero's possible succession to the presidency and in support of Páez assuming power.
The struggles between conservative civilians and militarists ended in the overthrow and imprisonment of Gual by the military and the proclamation of the Páez dictatorship on September 10. During this last government he sanctioned the first Civil Code of Venezuela.All the year 1862 and part of 1863, Páez led the war against the federalists headed by Juan Crisóstomo Falcón. He finally surrenders with the Treaty of Coche, ending hostilities in April 1863. Páez nominally governs in Caracas until mid-June and on August 13 he leaves Venezuela for the third and last time, establishing his residence again in New York..
Death
In New York, Páez met the then Minister Plenipotentiary of Argentina, Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, who deeply impressed him with his ideas regarding the importance that should be given to education. Between 1868 and 1871 he lived in Buenos Aires, where his military rank was recognized. An active Freemason, Páez attended the banquet that the Argentine lodges offered to Sarmiento in Buenos Aires.In 1871 he traveled to France and later to New York. [citation needed ]
General José Antonio Páez died in New York on May 6, 1873, when he was 82 years old. His death occurred at seven twenty-five in the morning, in a modest house marked with No. 42 East 20th Street, assisted by the doctor A.K. Gardner, he dies of bronchopneumonia, the result of a severe cold, probably acquired in the horseback rides that he used to take in Central Park in the weeks before his death, due to the cold New York weather. At the time of death, they were at his side, his son Ramón Páez Ricaurte and many political émigrés like him, most of them Cubans. He had died almost destitute and in his last years he was seen wearing old clothes to be mended. His corpse was embalmed free of charge by the Cuban doctor Federico Gálvez.
His body would be buried in a municipal plot of Marble Cemetery because he did not have enough money to buy a private one. He remained there for 15 years and was on the verge of being placed in a common grave because he had not left his family assets to cover the expenses of a dignified and private sepulcher. Tomás Michelena in his work Summary of the Military and Political Life of the Enlightened Citizen General José Antonio Páez (Tipografía El Cojo, 1899) describes the fact as follows:
... yesterday morning at 10am, the personal friends of the dead, including the pains, met in the last abode of East 20th Street, to give the last visit to their remains. At ten and fourth the coffin came out between the tears of the mourners, and was placed in a simple carriage pulled by two horses. On the coffin there were two American flags, one of which made of silk and velvet and beautifully embroidered in silver and gold, had been presented by General Páez himself to Major A. E. P. Green who commanded the troop that escorted the warlord to the ship that took him to Venezuela, in the first departure of this city to his homeland. The carriage and accompaniment made up of a dozen cars arrived at the Roman Catholic church in San Esteban (sic) at 10:30 a.m. At this hour the beautiful church was filled everywhere. The coffin was taken at the foot of the priest and placed on a walks on the sides of which there were six candlesticks with lit candles. On the coffin there were four garlands of flowers, while at the head and feet were placed in a straight position two crosses of ever-living flowers... ...He was subsequently taken to Marbel Cementery and temporarily placed in a vault waiting for the Government and the people of Venezuela to claim the remains of that patriot to be buried with military honors... As a curious fact, Paez knew Simon Bolivar
Repatriation of mortal remains
In 1888 the remains of Páez returned to Venezuela, during the government of General Hermógenes López. The acts that were then organized to take his remains to the National Pantheon of Venezuela were entitled The Apotheosis of General Páez . His body had been out of his home country for fifteen years. They created a monument to José Antonio Páez in the Glorias Patrias square in Mérida.
On Monday, April 8, 1957, the press "El Heraldo" of Venezuela, published, within the framework of his space called "Historical Testimony", an interview with Mr. Carlos Enrique Fernández León (son of Carmelo Fernández and great-nephew of José Antonio Páez) recalling the day that the The city of Caracas received, with torches and enormous respect, the mortal remains of the former president and General José Antonio Páez, which were transferred to the National Pantheon, where they have rested since 1888.
Acknowledgments and Honors
In Colombia
In the departments of Boyacá and Cauca there are municipalities with the surname Páez in honor of the Venezuelan leader: Páez (Boyacá) and Páez (Cauca).
In Arauca the international bridge bears his name
In Venezuela
- He was General in Chief of the Venezuelan Army
- He was president of Venezuela in three periods.
- Its remains lie in the National Pantheon since April 19, 1888.
- With the date of 1865, coins with a nominal value of 10 reais were coined at the Paris Coin House, in whose opposite is the effigy of General José Antonio Páez. Curiously this coin never circled and were sent to melt and it is presumed that about 200 units were saved.
- The republic issued a ticket with the effigy of General José Antonio Páez with a nominal value of 20 bolívares of 1974 date of its first edition until its last issue in 1998 and its subsequent circulation output.
- In 1990, a commemorative silver-copper coin was coined, the nominal value of which was 500 bolívares with the effigy of General José Antonio Páez.
- In 1990, a nominal value coin was coined with the effigy of General José Antonio Páez.
- In the Apure, Miranda, Portuguesa and Zulia states there are municipalities with the name of the José Antonio Páez Independence Procer:
- Páez municipality in the State Apure.
- Páez municipality in the State Miranda
- Páez municipality in the Portuguese State
- Páez municipality in the State Zulia
- In the Yaracuy State there is the Municipality José Antonio Páez. At the entrance of its capital, Sabana de Parra, two small monuments are erected that evoke the Mayurupí Site, witness to the incident that marked the life of General Páez.
- In Bolivar City, Bolivar State is the parish José Antonio Páez.
- In the Apure State in the municipality Pedro Camejo the population of Puerto Páez is located.
- In the Apure State on the Arauca River is the José Antonio Páez International Bridge.
- In the Barinas State, the General José Antonio Páez Hydroelectric Power Station is located in the population of Altamira de Cáceres and Calderas of the Bolivar municipality.
- In the Carabobo State in the city of Valencia is located the Historical Museum Casa Páez in which it was the house of the Ilustre Prócer. This city is also home to José Antonio Páez University, founded on 17 September 1997.
- The José Antonio Páez Stadium is located in the Portuguese state in the city of Acarigua.
- One of the main highways in the country is named Autopista José Antonio Páez.
- In Caracas you will find Plaza Páez in the urbanization El Paraíso.
- In San Cristobal, capital of the State Táchira is located the Plaza Páez
- In Caracas there is José Antonio Páez Avenue.
- At the entrance of the municipality of Cocorote in the state Yaracuy there is the Monument to General José Antonio Páez
- In the city of Barinas, capital of the Barinas State, Venezuela, Plaza Páez
- In the population of El Rastro, Municipality Miranda, Guárico State, Plaza Páez
- In Calabozo, Guárico State, Plaza Páez
- In Zaraza Estado Guarico Plaza Páez, sector Golfo Triste. According to Francisco Gustavo Chacín, who draws in his work Reasons of Province (1959) the squares of the town and its conditions for the time, this space was conditioned in 1835 by the troops of General Páez, hero of Independence, to play roosters, dance and perform other diversions for the troops tuned on the site. Currently, Plaza Páez is one of the best preserved public spaces in the municipality.
- In Maracaibo in 1937, the Páez Square was built. Located in the av. 4 Bella Vista.