Cipriano Castro

Cipriano Castro
Castro in 1908
President of Venezuela
In office 20 October 1899 – 19 December 1908
Preceded by	Ignacio Andrade
Succeeded by	Juan Vicente Gómez
Personal details
Born	(1858-10-12)12 October 1858 Capacho Viejo [es], Táchira, Venezuela
Died	4 December 1924(1924-12-04) (aged 66) San Juan, Puerto Rico
Resting place	National Pantheon of Venezuela
Spouse	Zoila Rosa Martínez
Signature

José Cipriano Castro Ruiz (12 October 1858 – 4 December 1924) was a high-ranking officer of the Venezuelan military, politician and the president of Venezuela from 1899 to 1908. He was the first man from the Venezuelan Andes to rule the country, and was the first of four military strongmen from the Andean state of Táchira to rule the country over the next 46 years.

Early life

Cipriano Castro was the only son of José Carmen Castro and Pelagia Ruiz. He was born on 12 October 1858 in

(1872–1873). He left those studies to return to San Cristóbal, where he began work as employee of a company called Van Dissel, Thies and Ci'a. He also worked as a cowboy in the Andean region. During his early life he grew up with 22 brothers and his sisters and his mother died which then lead on to his father marrying somebody else then leading to more siblings. He was very close to his family and he then sent most of his little brothers to study in Caracas

Military experience and introduction to politics

In 1876 Castro opposed the candidacy of general Francisco Alvarado for the presidency of the

state. In 1878 he was working as the manager of the newspaper El Álbum when he participated along with a group of independence advocates in the seizure of San Cristóbal when they refused to submit to the authority of the new president of the state.

In 1884, he got into a disagreement with a parish priest, Juan Ramón Cárdenas in

, his future companion in his rise to power. He entered politics and became the governor of his province of Táchira but was exiled to Colombia when the government in Caracas was overthrown in 1892. Castro lived in Colombia for seven years, amassing a fortune in illegal cattle trading and recruiting a private army.

Presidency

Amassing considerable support from disaffected Venezuelans, Castro's once personal army developed into a strong national army, and he used it to march on Caracas in October 1899 in an event called the Restorative Liberal Revolution, and seize power, installing himself as the supreme military commander.

Once in charge, Castro inaugurated a period of plunder and political disorder having assumed the vacant presidency, after modifying the constitution (1904). He remained president for the period 1899–1908, designating Juan Vicente Gómez his "compadre" as vice-president.

Castro's rule was marked by frequent rebellions, the murder or exile of his opponents, his own extravagant living, and trouble with other nations. Castro was characterized as "a crazy brute" by United States secretary of state Elihu Root and as "probably the worst of Venezuela's many dictators" by historian Edwin Lieuwen. His nine years of despotic and dissolute rule are best known for having provoked numerous foreign interventions, including blockades and bombardments by Dutch, British, German, and Italian naval units seeking to enforce the claims of their citizens against Castro's government.

Crisis of 1901–1903

In 1901 the banker Manuel Antonio Matos was the leader of the Liberating Revolution,^[2] a major military movement with the intention to overthrow Cipriano Castro's government.^[3] Severe disagreements between Castro and the foreign economic elite that support the revolution (as New York and Bermudez Company, Orinoco Shipping Company, Krupp, French Cable, and others) evolved into an open war that shook the country and brought the government to the brink of collapse.

On 2 April 1902, in response to rising political tension between the Netherlands and Venezuela to evacuate the Jews of Coro to Curaçao, the HNLMS Koningin Regentes and the HNLMS Utrecht arrived in the Venezuelan port of La Guaira. Prior to their arrival, the Venezuelan Navy had repeatedly checked Dutch and Antillean merchant ships and the presence of the Dutch warships acted as a deterrent against further actions.^[4]

In November 1902, the troops at command of Castro himself broke the Siege of La Victoria, weakened the vast network of revolutionaries armies and its extraordinary power.

Few weeks after that, Venezuela saw a

as concerning European seizure of territory, rather than intervention per se. With prior promises that no such seizure would occur, the US allowed the action to go ahead without objection. The blockade saw Venezuela's small navy quickly disabled, but Castro refused to give in, and instead agreed in principle to submit some of the claims to international arbitration, which he had previously rejected. Germany initially objected to this, particularly as it felt some claims should be accepted by Venezuela without arbitration.

When the world press reacted negatively to incidents including the sinking of two Venezuelan ships and the bombardment of the coast, the U.S pressured the parties to settle, and drew attention to its nearby naval fleet in Puerto Rico at command of Admiral George Dewey. With Castro failing to back down, Roosevelt pressure and increasingly negative British and American press reaction to the affair, the blockading nations agreed to a compromise, but maintained the blockade during negotiations over the details. This led to the signing in Washington of an agreement on 13 February 1903 which saw the blockade lifted, and Venezuela represented by U.S. ambassador Herbert W. Bowen commit 30% of its customs duties to settling claims. When an arbitral tribunal subsequently awarded preferential treatment to the blockading powers against the claims of other nations, the U.S feared this would encourage future European intervention. The revolutionaries, bearing a wound that could not be healed, succumbing finally in July 1903 in the Battle of Ciudad Bolivar after the siege of government army conducted by General Gomez, with which Matos decides to leave Venezuela, establishing itself in Paris.

However, the blockading nations argued for preferential treatment for their claims, which Venezuela rejected, and on 7 May 1903 a total of ten powers with grievances against Venezuela, including the United States, signed protocols referring the issue to the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague.^[7][8] The Court held on 22 February 1904 that the blockading powers were entitled to preferential treatment in the payment of their claims.^[9] Washington disagreed with the decision in principle, and feared it would encourage future European intervention to gain such advantage.^[9] As a result, the crisis produced the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine,^[9] described in Roosevelt's 1904 message to Congress.^[10] The Corollary asserted a right of the United States to intervene to "stabilize" the economic affairs of small states in the Caribbean and Central America if they were unable to pay their international debts, in order to preclude European intervention to do so. The Venezuela crisis, and in particular the arbitral award, were key in the development of the Corollary.^[9]

In 1906, Castro punished the international firms involved in the Revolution to the point that diplomatic relations were broken with the United States and then with France due to debt differences.^{[citation needed]} As a result, Venezuela lost its direct telegraph cable access when the French company that had been providing it was ousted from the country. The DeForest Wireless Telegraph company negotiated with Castro and sent a representative on April 18, 1908 to install stations in five different towns across Venezuela.^[11]

General Antonio Paredes led an insurrection against Castro, and in the winter of 1906, Paredes was captured and executed alongside sixteen other dissidents. His brother, Hector Luis Paredes, issued a manifesto from his home in Berlin, Germany. In it, Paredes called on the Venezuelan diaspora to join together to oust Castro from power, accusing him of stealing millions from the national treasury and using mercenary force to impede the government.^[12]

In 1908, accusing the opposition to his regime, General Castro massively expelled Corsican producers and traders established in and around Carúpano.^{[citation needed]}

Dutch–Venezuelan crisis

In 1908, a dispute broke out between the Netherlands and president Castro regime on the grounds of the harboring of refugees in Curaçao. In July, Castro's government broke diplomatic relations with the

. The Dutch warships had orders to intercept every ship that was sailing under the Venezuelan flag.

On 12 December 1908, the Gelderland captured the Venezuelan gunboat Alix off Puerto Cabello.^[6]: 221 She and another ship the 23 de Mayo were interned in the harbor of Willemstad. With their overwhelming naval superiority, the Dutch enforced a blockade on Venezuela's ports.

Several popular riots run through the streets of Caracas, protesting the Dutch threats against Venezuela. The demonstrations degenerate into looting of businesses. Among the looted businesses was that of the Dutch merchant Thielen, an important figure in the Castro regime.

Castro's overthrow in 1908, exile and death in 1924

Few days later, Castro, who had been seriously ill for four years due to a kidney problem,^[13] left for Paris to seek medical treatment for syphilis, leaving the government in the hands of vice president Juan Vicente Gómez, the man who was instrumental in his victories of 1899 and 1903. However, on 19 December 1908, Gómez seized power himself and effectively ended the war with the Netherlands. A few days later, General Castro left for Berlin, nominally for a surgical operation. After that Castro suffered the harassment of the European powers resentful due to the policy that he had maintained towards them during his 8 years as president of Venezuela.

Without resources to carry out an armed invasion, he went to Madrid and then recovered from his operation in Paris and in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. At the end of 1912 Castro intended to spend a season in the United States, but was captured and vexed by the immigration authorities of Ellis Island which forced him to leave in peremptory terms (February, 1913). He finally settled with his wife in Puerto Rico (1916), under close surveillance by spies sent by Juan Vicente Gómez, who assumed the Venezuelan presidency.

Castro spent the rest of his life in exile in

.

Cipriano Castro cabinet (1899–1908)

Ministries[14]
OFFICE	NAME	TERM
President	Cipriano Castro	1899–1908
Home Affairs	Juan Francisco Castillo	1899–1900
	Rafael Cabrera Malo	1900–1901
	José Antonio Velutini	1901–1902
	Rafael López Baralt	1902–1903
	Leopoldo Baptista	1903–1907
	Julio Torres Cárdenas	1907
	Rafael López Baralt	1907–1908
Outer Relations	Raimundo Andueza Palacio	1899–1900
	Eduardo Blanco	1900–1901
	Jacinto Regino Pachano	1901–1902
	Diego Bautista Ferrer	1902–1903
	Alejandro Urbaneja	1903
	Gustavo Sanabria	1903–1905
	Alejandro Ibarra	1905–1906
	José de Jesús Paúl	1906–1908
Finance	Ramón Tello Mendoza	1899–1903
	José Cecilio De Castro	1903–1906
	Francisco de Sales Pérez	1906
	Gustavo Sanabria	1906
	Eduardo Celis	1906–1907
	Arnaldo Morales	1906–1907
War and Navy	José Ignacio Pulido	1899–1902
	Ramón Guerra	1902–1903
	José María García Gómez	1903
	Manuel Salvador Araujo	1903–1904
	Joaquín Garrido	1904–1905
	José María García Gómez	1905–1906
	Diego Bautista Ferrer	1906
	Manuel Salvador Araujo	1906–1907
	Diego Bautista Ferrer	1907–1908
Development	José Manuel Hernández	1899
	Celestino Peraza	1899
	Guillermo Tell Villegas Pulido	1899–1900
	Ramón Ayala	1900–1901
	Felipe Arocha Gallegos	1901–1902
	Arnaldo Morales	1902–1903
	José T. Arria	1903
	Rafael Garbiras Guzmán	1903–1904
	Arnaldo Morales	1904–1905
	Diego Bautista Ferrer	1905–1906
	Arístides Tellería	1906
	Arnaldo Morales	1906
	Jesús María Herrera Irigoyen	1906–1908
Public Works	Víctor Rodríguez Párraga	1899
	Juan Otáñez Maucó	1899–1902
	Rafael María Carabaño	1902–1903
	Ricardo Castillo Chapellín	1903
	Alejandro Rivas Vásquez	1903–1904
	Ricardo Castillo Chapellín	1904–1906
	Luis Mata Illas	1906
	Juan Casanova	1906–1908
Public Instruction	Manuel Clemente Urbaneja	1899–1900
	Félix Quintero	1900–1901
	Tomás Garbiras	1901–1902
	Rafael Monserrate	1902–1903
	Eduardo Blanco	1903–1905
	Arnaldo Morales	1905–1906
	Enrique Siso	1906
	Carlos León	1906
	Eduardo Blanco	1906
	Laureano Villanueva	1906–1907
	José Antonio Baldó	1907–1908
Secretary of Presidency	Celestino Peraza	1899
	Julio Torres Cárdenas	1899–1906
	Lucio Baldó	1906
	José Rafael Revenga	1906–1907
	Rafael Gárbiras Guzmán	1907–1908
	Leopoldo Baptista	1908

Personal life

First Lady of Venezuela from 1899 to 1908.^[16][17] She was sometimes known as Zoila de Castro.^[18]

She died in Caracas in 1952.[19]

Castro's daughter, Rosa Castro Martínez, was born on January 31, 1906. She adopted the stage name Lucille Méndez, and became the first Venezuelan actress in Hollywood silent movies.^[15][20] Director Ralph Ince suggested the stage name, the same as his former wife. Rosa and Ralph married on July 7, 1926; afterwards, her Spanish performances billed her as Rosa Castro, though she continued to be listed as Méndez in films recorded for English-speaking audiences.^[15]

Méndez died in San Diego, California on May 24, 2008 at the age of 102.^[15]

Trivia

This article contains a list of miscellaneous information. Please relocate any relevant information into other sections or articles. (September 2023)

During his presidency, northern Venezuela was struck by the powerful

Miranda State and in the Venezuelan capital Caracas. Castro was woken in the middle of the night, and he leaped off from a window of the Yellow House, the then official residence of the President of Venezuela, and suffered a broken ankle.^[21] The earthquake led him to consider changing the official residence to a building with anti-seismic structure, which occurred in 1904, when he transferred the Presidential House to Miraflores Palace, becoming its first occupant.^[22]

In popular culture

Cipriano Castro was portrayed by Roberto Moll in the 2017 film La planta insolente.^[23]

See also

• Presidents of Venezuela
• List of Venezuelans

References

1. Newspapers.com
   .
2. ISBN 978-980-381-082-5
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3. ISBN 978-980-6210-45-5
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4. ^ "scheepvaartmuseum.nl :: Maritieme kalender 1902" [Het Scheepvaartmuseum Maritime Calendar 1902]. Het Scheepvaartmuseum (in Dutch). Archived from the original on 4 October 2013. Retrieved 24 December 2012.
5. ^ Fonzo, Erminio (2015). "Italia y el bloqueo naval de Venezuela (1902-1903)". Cultura Latinoamericana. 21 (1): 35–61. Retrieved 9 February 2017 – via Academia.edu.
6. ^
   ISBN 9780313313561
   .
7. ISBN 978-90-411-1233-0
   .
8. ^ Steel, Anthony (1967). "The British Empire and the United States of America, 1870-1914". In Benians, E.A.; Butler, Sir James; Carrington, C.E. (eds.). The Cambridge History of the British Empire, Volume III: The Empire-Commonwealth, 1870-1919 (2nd ed.). London: The Syndics of the Cambridge University Press. p. 322.
9. ^
   S2CID 153429243. Retrieved 1 February 2024 – via Taylor & Francis
   .
10. ISBN 978-1-85109-951-1
    .
11. Newspapers.com
    .
12. Newspapers.com
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13. S2CID 147570618. Retrieved 1 February 2024 – via JSTOR
    .
14. ^ “Gaceta Oficial de Venezuela” Period 1899–1908
15. ^ ^{a b c d} Perozo Padua, Luis Alberto (1 March 2021). "Rosa Castro, la primera venezolana en Hollywood" [Rosa Castro, the first Venezuelan in Hollywood]. El Nacional (Venezuela) (in Spanish). Retrieved 1 February 2024.
16. OCLC 1262432
    . Retrieved 1 February 2024.
17. ISBN 9781976873034
    . Retrieved 1 February 2024.
18. ^ Hernández, Octavio (1906). "La fiesta del Club Unión de Maracaibo en honor de doña Zoila de Castro" [The Club Unión de Maracaibo party in honor of Mrs. Zoila de Castro]. Harvard Library (in Spanish). Maracaibo, Venezuela: Impr. Americana. pp. 1, 5, 9. 990113751260203941. Retrieved 1 February 2024.
19. OCLC 1262432
    . Retrieved 1 February 2024.
20. ^ "John M. Anderson to Build Theatre". New York Times: 12. 8 July 1925. Retrieved 25 September 2018.
21. ^ "El movimiento telúrico tuvo una magnitud de 8,0". www.funvisis.gob.ve (in Spanish). Venezuelan Foundation for Seismological Research. Retrieved 12 June 2021.
22. ^ Maldonado-Bourgoin, Carlos (1994). La Casa Amarilla: enclave histórico de Venezuela [The Yellow House: historical enclave of Venezuela] (in Spanish). p. 280.
23. ^ Del Águila, Sonia (6 February 2020). "Roberto Moll y el día que fue declarado "clínicamente muerto": "Le dijeron a mi hija que haga los trámites de la funeraria"" [Roberto Moll and the day he was declared “clinically dead”: “They told my daughter to do the paperwork at the funeral home”]. El Comercio (in Spanish). Retrieved 8 December 2022.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cipriano Castro.

• Cipriano Castro
• Castro biography (in Spanish)

Political offices
Preceded by Ignacio Andrade	President of Venezuela 1899 – 1908	Succeeded by Juan Vicente Gómez