1899: Cipriano Castro enters Caracas victorious

Published at: 22/10/2024 09:34 AM

On October 22, 1899, Cipriano Castro and his Andean army entered Caracas, which grew day by day, from battle to battle. He had come from Colombia sweeping the National Army, giving it defeat after defeat in a campaign that lasted five months. Since May 23 of that same year, when he crossed the Táchira River with 60 men to Caracas.

Castro, upon learning of the flight of President Ignacio Andrade, says: “The last tyrant is already on his way to exile.” Arellano Moreno says that men of commerce and letters tell him: “You arrive at the Capitol because of the glorious course that freedom followed in 1813 at the time of Bolivar the Great, and a banquet they had ready for Andrade is offered to the restorative leader”.

Cipriano Castro was born in La Ovejera de Capacho, Táchira state, on October 11, 1859. In 1876, he actively ventured into politics, opposing the candidacy of General Francisco Alvarado for the presidency of Táchira; he also participated in the takeover of San Cristóbal by a group that sought to separate the great state of Los Andes from the rest of the country.

He was later appointed deputy by Táchira to the National Congress, where he joined the supporters of Andueza Palacios. At that time, the Legalist Revolution against Andueza rose; for this reason, Castro traveled to Táchira where, helped by Juan Vicente Gómez, they organized an army against the Legalist Revolution, but when it triumphed, he became isolated again in Colombia for seven years, until on May 23, 1899, he invaded Táchira again, leading the Liberal Restorative Revolution, known as the invasion of the sixties, in the company of his inseparable friend Gomez.

From victory to victory, he moved to the center and triumphantly entered Caracas on October 22, 1899, becoming the First Magistrate, a position he held until 1908.

Mazo News Team