Manuel Murillo Toro

Manuel Murillo Toro (Chaparral, Tolima, January 1, 1816-Bogotá, December 26, 1880) was a Colombian politician, doctor and writer. He was twice president of the United States of Colombia for the Colombian Liberal Party, as well as chancellor and Secretary of the Treasury.

He participated in the Rionegro Convention that gave the country a new Constitution and a new name (United States of Colombia) in 1863. The following year he achieved victory as a presidential candidate for the biennium that ran until 1866, and was again elected for the period between 1872 and 1874.

In 1864 he founded the Official Gazette, an institutional information organ, and focused the policy of his governments on achieving social peace through dialogue, as well as on the modernization of the country's infrastructure, among other things brought the telegraph to Colombia, despite being radically opposed to state interventionism in the economy. In his role as writer and journalist, he founded the Gaceta Mercantil de Santa Marta in 1847, in addition to collaborating on other publications.

Within his militancy in the Liberal Party he was the promoter of the movement called radical liberalism. His death marked the end of the influence of radical liberal ideas in the government of the nation, giving way to conservative governments for almost 50 years. The University of Cauca considered him the Great Thinker of the 19th century in Colombia.

He also had a son named Manuel Eugenio Murillo Toro, for whom he never responded.

Biography

Manuel Murillo Toro was born in the town of Chaparral, Tolima on January 1, 1816, during the Spanish reconquest of the territories that today correspond to Colombia (United Provinces of New Granada). Murillo grew up in a home with limited economic resources, being the son of José Joaquín Murillo y Velarde, and María Teresa Toro Nieto.He studied high school in Ibagué, in one of the most important schools, the still called Colegio de San Simón.

He was sent to Bogotá to study medicine and during his studies he worked for the influential politicians Vicente Azuero and Lino de Pombo. Murillo obtained the title from him in 1836.

In his youth he worked to promote the ideas of European thinkers Jean Charles de Sismondi, Henry de Saint-Simon, Charles Fourier and Pierre Proudhon.

Political career

Starting in 1837 he served as an employee of Congress, and during the War of the Supremes (1840-1843) he served as assistant to several military leaders of the Liberal Party.

In 1846 he won a seat in the House of Representatives, and although he did not stand out as an orator, he did so thanks to his ideological and programmatic approaches, which he had already outlined in the liberal press at the beginning of 1840.

During the government of José Hilario López he was Secretary (Minister) of Finance (1849-1853), and promoted freedom of industry and the agrarian reform law of 1850, according to which "cultivation should be the basis of "land ownership" and that the accumulation of land had to be legally limited; His ideas would be constitutionally enshrined in 1936.

First presidential candidacy

In 1857, he was a candidate for the Presidency of New Granada (then the name of current Colombia) for a sector of the Liberal Party, coming in second place, behind the conservative Mariano Ospina Rodríguez and surpassing former president Tomás Cipriano de Mosquera (another conservative and now a candidate from another liberal sector).

Congressman

In that same year, with the creation of the Sovereign State of Santander, Murillo Toro was elected by the Assembly of Deputies of that territory as its first president for the period from October 16, 1857 to October 16, 1859, but He resigned from his position on January 10, 1859 to take a seat in the Senate. During his stay in Congress he promoted laws to guarantee the rights of freedom of the press, religion, and assembly.

Constitution of 1863

In 1863 he participated as a delegate in the Rionegro Convention, which was called by President Mosquera to draft a new constitution. The new political charter was promulgated on May 8, 1863 in Rionegro, and was in force until its repeal on August 5, 1886, with the conservative constitution of the same year.

The new constitution was governed by the principles of classical liberalism and established, for example, the carrying of weapons for citizens, the change of the country's name from the Grenadine Confederation to the United States of Colombia, the abolition of the death penalty, the separation of State and Church, and the reduction of the presidential term from 4 to 2 years.

Second candidacy

Murillo Toro appeared in the 1864 elections, as a favorite for his party, despite the fact that he belonged to the radical current of liberalism. He also faced his co-partisans Santos Gutiérrez and the president of the time, Tomás Cipriano de Mosquera (who aspired to a fourth term and his re-election). Murillo received the support of 6 states, which gave him an important advantage over Gutiérrez and Mosquera.

Although the states that supported Murillo were not as important as those that supported the other two candidates, their numerical weight determined the results of the day. Once again Murillo won over Mosquera, as in the 1857 elections, but Mariano Ospina Rodríguez did not participate, alleging a lack of guarantees, so the Conservative Party did not present a candidate.

Murillo was proclaimed president of the states of the Confederation for the period 1864 - 1866.

First presidency (1864-1866)

His first period in the presidency, which began on April 8, 1864, stood out for the conciliatory spirit of the government, which sought harmony between the two traditional parties, and for the implementation of the telegraph service. With respect Murillo inaugurated the telegraph on November 1, 1865, when he sent a message from the Convent of Santo Domingo, in Bogotá, to the neighboring town of Mosquera, Cundinamarca.

He also created the Official Gazette, a means of disseminating the activities of the Congress (and which remains in force to this day) and ordered the creation of maps of the country's territories, taking as reference various cartographic works of the Commission Chorographic.

Ministerial Cabinet

Intergovernments

Murillo Toro handed over power on April 1, 1866 to José María Rojas, first appointed, replacing Tomás Cipriano de Mosquera, who won the elections on February 17, 1866, but was in Paris at the time. of his victory.

Once the presidency was handed over, Murillo was elected senator, but in 1867 he was imprisoned along with other senators when Mosquera closed Congress and due to the opposition that Murillo exercised against the government. Mosquera was overthrown on May 25, 1857, and the new head of state released Murillo and his fellow senators.

Then Murillo was elected deputy for Cundinamarca and returned to Congress. For a short period he was ambassador to the United States and then was elected judge of the Supreme Court of Justice. In all positions he stood out for the implementation of the political doctrine that he defended in his time as a journalist and legislator, that is, that of radical liberalism.

Third presidential candidacy

Murillo ran again for the presidency, competing in the 1872 elections, and again as a candidate of the Liberal Party, with the support of the Conservative Party. He defeated his former Secretary of War Julián Trujillo, and the conservative Manuel María Mallarino, who also aspired for a second term. By winning the elections, Murillo Toro became the first civilian candidate to achieve re-election.

Second presidency (1872-1874)

During his second government, Murillo considerably reduced the country's external and internal debt, which allowed the development of infrastructure works throughout the country. He also developed the navigation of the Magdalena River, began the construction of the railroad for the port town of Buenaventura, and provided the country's capital, Bogotá, with gas-powered public lighting.

Cabinet

• Chancellor: Florentino Vesga (1872); Gil Colunje (1872-1874)
• War Secretary: Eustorgio Salgar Moreno (1872-1874)
• Secretary of Finance: Aquileo Parra (1872-1874).

Post-presidency

Murillo handed over power on April 1, 1874 to the conservative Santiago Pérez Manosalva, who despite being from his rival party sent him as plenipotentiary minister to the government of Venezuela, to resolve a border conflict between both countries, as a result of the limits established by the president of Venezuela Antonio Guzmán Blanco. Murillo's excellent management prevented Colombia from signing a border treaty that favored the counterparty.

Murillo was elected senator again in 1878, and was invited to an extraordinary session, but his health kept him away from Congress in 1880.

Death

Manuel Murillo Toro died in Bogotá on December 26, 1880, at the age of 64, being buried two days later in the Central Cemetery of Bogotá. However, his remains were exhumed and transferred to a monumental tomb within it. cemetery in 1902, where his remains currently rest.

With his death the progressive wing of the Liberal Party became extinct, since he did not leave an heir to his ideas. Despite the fact that the party was unified, it could not defeat the conservatives, who governed Colombia consecutively since the election of José María Campo, in 1886, until 1930, when Enrique Olaya Herrera won the elections.

Family

Manuel was the son of José Joaquín Murillo y Velarde and his wife María Teresa Toro Nieto. The couple had 5 children: María de la Asunción, Josefa, María Teresa del Rosario, María Victorina Rosalía and Nepomucena Murillo Toro, with Manuel being the only son of the couple.

His father remarried Manuel's half-brother, José Román Murillo Rojas, with María Dolores Rojas.

Marriage

Manuel Murillo Toro was married twice: The first to Jerónima Sánchez, with whom he had his only daughter, Amalia Murillo Sánchez, who married Bernardo Vallarino Goméz Miró, belonging to the Peruvian Panamanian Miró Quesada family. His second wife was Ana Roma y Carbacas, with whom he had no children.

Kindliness

Murillo Toro is related in a collateral line (bloodline that comes from brothers or cousins) to the Colombian doctor and scientist Manuel Elkin Patarroyo Murillo, who is a descendant of Román Murillo Rojas, half brother of Murillo Toro, since Román He is the great-great-grandfather of the scientist's mother.

One of his sisters married the great-grandson of Francisco de Paula Santander and his wife Sixta Pontón, Antonio Suárez Galvis Amorocho, who was the grandson of the daughter of the generalː Sixta Tulia Santander y Pontón.

Tributes

His conservative rival, the multiple-time president of Colombia, Rafael Núñez, stated that he was "the one who demonstrated the most powerful political inspiration", and decades later the liberal leader Darío Echandía affirmed that Murillo Toro was "the politician par excellence and antonomasia".

As an illustrious citizen of Tolima, he gives his name to two key places: Plaza Manuel Murillo Toro, in front of the Government of Tolima, in Ibagué, and the Manuel Murillo Toro Stadium, where the city's team, Deportes, plays at home. Tolima. For its part, Plaza Manuel Murillo Toro was called in the XVIII century XVIII Plazoleta de Santo Domingo, and then Plazoleta de San Simón, name given to it in 1822 under the presidency of Francisco de Paula Santander. In one of the areas of the park there is a bust in honor of Murillo Toro.

The stadium was inaugurated on July 20, 1955 by President Gustavo Rojas Pinilla and had two names before the definitive one: Gustavo Rojas Pinilla State and San Bonifacio Stadium. There is also a school in his honor located in Ibagué, which in His time was one of the best in the sector. In Santa Marta, Magdalena, there is also a bust in his honor, located in the Parque de los Novios.

Relationship with communications and the Ministry of ICT

In honor of his contribution to the country's communications, the Manuel Murillo Toro building, headquarters of the Ministry of Information Technologies and Communications, bears his name; The building was built and inaugurated in 1941, and was commissioned by the Italian architect Bruno Violi. The building was built after President Eduardo Santos ordered its demolition to adapt it for use as the headquarters of the Ministry of Communications, since it was the Convent of Santo Domingo, where Murillo Toro had sent the first telegraph message in the country.

In front of the building there is also a statue of Murillo Toro, made by the sculptor Charles Raoul Verlet, and commissioned for 1919. On January 1, 1920 it was inaugurated, and then it was moved from its original location, on Calle 26, to its current location, in front of the Ministry of ICT.

In 1980, a group of military personnel specialized in communications and members of the Colombian Army created Agrucom (Manuel Murillo Toro Communications Guild Group), a union dedicated to promoting communications work within the Armed Forces. Colombians.

In 2012, the Ministry of Telecommunications created the Manuel Murillo Toro Medal of Merit for Communications, or simply the Manuel Murillo Toro Medal, to honor people and companies for their work in the dissemination of communications in Colombia.

In 2016, to commemorate the bicentennial of his birth, the Ministry of ICT organized a series of events to commemorate him, including the intervention of his sculpture in the Murillo Toro Building, and activities dedicated to exalting his memory and his legacy. The campaign was led by the then minister David Luna, part of the government of Juan Manuel Santos. Within the framework of the celebration, an exhibition was held in his honor throughout the department of Tolima. The activities extended to the carrying out of works of infrastructure in his native Chaparral, and which were approved with Law 1855 of 2017.