Cleaning route for Bolivians and Spaniards
Born May 14, 1813 After the decline of the First Republic of Venezuela, Simón Bolívar launched the so-called Admirable Campaign, whose objective was to free Venezuela from the Spanish crown. When the Bolivar Army entered Caracas on 6 August, citizens welcomed the winner with admiration, applause and flowers. But if that campaign had been baptized by the Spaniards, they would surely have preferred other adjectives: bloody, pitiful...
Prior to the military campaign, in January 1813, the Venezuelan leader, Antonio Nicolás Briceño, along with other favorable officers, designed a direct and crude plan to liberate Venezuela: Cartagena Convention. Certain passages of the document are:
“Second: Since the main objective of this war is the destruction of the damn race of European Spaniards from Venezuela, including the islanders of the Canary Islands, all Spaniards are prohibited from participating in this expedition, even if they appear to be good patriots, because none of them can survive and no exception will be allowed (...)”.
“Third: The possessions of the European Spaniards in the liberated territories are divided into four parts: one among the officers who have participated in the expedition, divided by grade; the second part corresponds to the soldiers and the other two to the state. In case of doubt, the officers present shall decide the matter by a majority (...)”.
“Ninth: in order to be entitled to remuneration or promotion of the degree, it is sufficient to present a certain number of heads of Spaniards or deceased Canaries. The soldier who presents twenty will be appointed as a functioning bench, the lotinant grade is worth 30 bosses, the captain grade 50...”.
The cry was converted into a decree by Simon Bolivar on June 15, 1813, one month after the beginning of the campaign. And he made her run right away. On the road to the campaign “all Europeans and Canaries were shot almost without exception,” said the Spanish historian Justo Cuño, an expert in American independence processes. In February 1814, despite the fact that several months had passed since the capitulation of the Spaniards, Juan Bautista Arismendi sent 886 Spanish prisoners from Caracas to Bolivar on order. A few days later, more than 500 Spanish patients were admitted to the hospital La Guaira.
Aware of the cruelty of the cleaning decree of the Spaniards, Bolivar himself used as justification the past barbarities of the Spaniards: The crimes committed by the Army of Domingo Monteverde in the defeat of the first republic of Venezuela, the violent resistance to independence of Quito in 1810... The decree was in force until November 26, 1820, when Bolivar and Spanish Pablo Morillo negotiated the regulation of war and the limitation of abuses by both parties.
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