José María Melo

José María Dionisio Melo y Ortiz was born to Manuel Antonio Melo and María Antonia Ortiz in Chaparral, a small town in the Mariquita Province of the Viceroyalty of New Granada, on October 9, 1800. He was raised in Ibagué, the provincial capital.[3]

Melo was of indigenous Pijao ancestry, and is considered the only Colombian president with a strong claim to indigenous ancestry.[3] Some historians have called the extent of this ancestry into question, noting that both his father and mother were listed by the census as "white nobles" who came from important families in the colonial towns of Cartago and Buga, respectively.[2] Others have sought to distinguish Melo's ancestry from his political contemporaries, saying that unlike Bolívar and Santander, Melo was never considered part of the criollo elite.[1]

Melo joined in the patriot army led by Simón Bolívar on April 21, 1819, commissioned as a lieutenant.[3] The liberation army had crossed into Spanish-controlled New Granada (modern-day Colombia) from Venezuela earlier that year.

Melo distinguished himself as a leader in combat, participating in battles at Popayán, Pitayó and Jenoy. He also fought at battles of Bomboná and Pichincha in 1822, securing the independence of Ecuador, as well as Junín, Mataró and Ayacucho in 1824, securing the independence of Peru from the Spanish crown. Melo was also part of the army that besieged the fortress city of Callao in 1825, which ultimately saw the collapse of the last Spanish stronghold in South America.[3]

Gran Colombia

Melo's support of Rafael Urdaneta led to his first exile

Melo remained with Bolívar's army after the final defeat of the Spanish. He participated in the war between Gran Colombia (which included modern-day Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Panama) and Peru (which sought to Bolívar's army out of Bolivia). Melo fought in the Battle of Portete de Tarqui in 1829, which ended in stalemate between the Colombian and Peruvian forces.[3]

Though the war with Peru was resolved with the 1830 Treaty of Guayaquil, the political situation in Gran Colombia was rapidly deteriorating. Venezuela and Ecuador withdrew from the union, and Bolívar resigned from the presidency of Colombia in 1830, to be replaced by the conservative Domingo Caycedo as president of the Republic of New Granada. In September 1830, general Rafael Urdaneta overthrew Caycedo and formally requested Bolívar's return. The attempt failed, and Caycedo returned to power.[4] Urdaneta and his supporters, Melo included, were imprisoned in the Castillo San Fernando in Cartagena, before they were deported to Dutch Curaçao in August 1831.[5]

Melo traveled to Venezuela, settling in Caracas; here he married Urdaneta's sister-in-law, María Teresa Vargas y París.[5] In Caracas, Melo was introduced to a group of military officers that favored the restoration of Gran Colombia, and opposed the separatist, conservative civilian government of José María Vargas.[5] The group also opposed the continued influence of caudillo and former president José Antonio Páez, who was considered a chief ideologue of Venezuela's separation from Gran Colombia.[3][6]

In 1835, the group, led by revolutionary hero Santiago Mariño, rose up in what became known as the Revolution of the Reforms, demanding the restoration of Gran Colombia as well as various political and social reforms.[7] Though they managed to depose Vargas, Páez raised an army and forced the rebels to evacuate Caracas; the surviving rebels went into exile, some to the Dutch Antilles, and others to Nicaragua.[3]

Melo went to Europe in December 1836. He studied at the Military Academy in Bremen, Lower Saxony, and became interested in socialist ideas debated in local circles.[8] In particular, Melo was drawn to the early utopians, including Charles Fourier and Henri de Saint-Simon, as well as the proto-anarchist ideas of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon and Louis Auguste Blanqui. Melo was also interested in the Chartist movement that emerged in England in 1838, and even the work of French socialist and suffragist Flora Tristan.[9]

General Melo.

On April 17, 1854, mobs of artisans stormed the houses of prominent senators in Bogotá and placed them under arrest.[14] The revolt origins are unclear, but some historians have concluded that it was masterminded by Miguel León, a prominent local blacksmith and president of the local Democratic Society club.[17] Whatever the case, Melo arrived with the artisans at the presidential palace at 7 a.m., urging Obando to dissolve Congress and form an emergency provisional government. Obando refused, and he was placed under arrest.[14]

Melo proclaimed that his government was a rejection of the 1853 constitution and the Golgotha-controlled Congress, which sought to impugn the Army, "illustrious body of armed citizens that gave the people independence." He also declared that "liberty shall not perish as long as I exist." Similar artisans' revolts broke out in Cali and Popayán.[14]

Though the Golgothas and Conservatives, who had fled to Ibagué and formed a provisional government, accused the artisans of forming a "audacious military dictatorship" headed by Melo, the "uncouth soldier", his government enjoyed the strong support of the artisans. One artisan newspaper declared of the new government: "We are free, we are democrats, and we did not abandon our workshops, our homes, and our families, only to give away our sovereignty to one man; we will not, for any price, exchange our title of citizens for that of subjects."[18]

Despite this support, Melo's regeneradores were outnumbered and outmatched by the constitucionalistas, which had united Golgothas like Tomás de Herrera with Conservatives like Julio Arboleda and Tomás Cipriano de Mosquera. Despite victories at Tíquiza and Zipaquirá, Melo's effective control of the country was limited to Bogotá, especially after Cali fell to the constitutionalists without resistance.[3] In a climactic battle south of the capital, San Diego y Las Nieves, Melo's army was decisively defeated and Miguel León, one of the regime's chief ideologues, was killed.[14]

After Melo was militarily defeated, his soldiers and artisans were severely repressed.[19] The only military survivors of the Artisans Revolution were 200 participants, banished on foot to Panama after their property was confiscated.[8] Conservatives in particular regarded the punishment as "an excellent method of purging Bogotá of the democratic pest," in the words of José Manuel Restrepo Vélez.[20]

Melo was put on trial and was ultimately expelled from the country for a period of eight years.[3] There were some agitating for his execution, but this was avoided thanks to the intervention of certain Golgothas who pushed for clemency, including Manuel Murillo Toro, who paid his bail.[21] He sailed for Costa Rica on October 23, 1855. Though his whereabouts immediately after his exile are unclear, historians believe that he participated in the Central American resistance against the American filibuster William Walker, who sought to create a slave republic in Nicaragua.[3]

After the victory over Walker, Melo worked as an instructor of troops in El Salvador.[8] He briefly moved to Guatemala before falling out with the country's dictator, Rafael Carrera.[3]

Melo crossed the Mexican border on October 10, 1859. At the time, Mexico was engulfed in the War of the Reform, another conflict between liberals (led by Benito Juárez) and conservatives. Melo sought to offer his services to Juárez directly, but was unable to reach the Liberal seat of government in Veracruz due to Conservative activity in Oaxaca; instead he was sworn into the Liberal army by the Governor of Chiapas, Ángel Albino Corzo. Melo was named chief cavalry officer of the Military Department of Comitán, which operated on the Mexico-Guatemala border; he sought out to train his men, most of them Tojolabal Indians, in the art of cavalry warfare.[22]

On June 1, 1860, Melo's cavalry troops, encamped at the Juncaná hacienda in La Trinitaria, were ambushed by the Conservative forces of General Juan Antonio Ortega. After several hours of fighting, the Juarista defense collapsed and the wounded Melo was captured by rebel forces. Ortega ordered Melo to be put to death, and the Colombian general was summarily executed by firing squad.[22][8]

Melo's position in the Liberal army was taken by José Pantaleón Domínguez, who managed to suppress the Conservative uprising in Chiapas. He was survived by his son, Máximo Melo Granados, who married the daughter of the governor of Chiapas, Ángel Albino Corzo, and remained in Mexico.[23]