Civic battles in a civilized center: elections in Chocó (Colombia) at the beginning of the 20th century
By Alejandra Ciro-Rodríguez and Julián Barbosa.
Research article derived from the project entitled “The Construction of the State in the framework of territorial disputes in the department of Chocó, Colombia” that is carried out within the framework of the doctorate in History at the Freie Universität Berlin with funding from the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD ) (Berlin Germany).
Summary
The article seeks to understand the relationship between Chocó and national political processes within the framework of the question about the configuration of the Colombian State in the first decades of the 20th century. In particular, the article focuses on the Chocoan electoral processes in a context of reorganization of the Liberal Party and increased participation of popular sectors of black people.
Based on the review of electoral sources, an exhaustive review of the local newspaper ABC and starting from a criticism of the visions of the State as a “monolithic entity”, the article problematizes the ideas about the “marginality” of the territory.
On the other hand, the study of the Chocoan electoral processes at the beginning of the 20th century shows significant levels of articulation of the Chocoan political dynamics with those of the rest of the country, contributing to the understanding of the configuration of the Colombian State from a partisan perspective.
conclusions
Traditionally, general opinion, but also certain historiography, has tended to consider the Chocó region as isolated or disconnected from the processes that marked the history of Colombia in the first half of the 20th century. Even today it is common to hear that there is no State in Chocó. Due to these commonplaces, there has been little interest among many historians in rediscovering the political dynamics of the early 20th century in these territories.
For this reason, the proposed review of the Chocó press during this period allows us to show that, on the contrary, there has been an active articulation of the territory with the processes that were developing in the interior of the country. Furthermore, this exercise shows that this regularity and refinement of the administrative and political paraphernalia around electoral processes accounts for forms of state presence that have not been considered under the traditional idea of Chocó as a remote territory.
The timely compliance with the electoral calendar and the active discussion and participation by its population in the electoral processes show that the Colombian State had more capacity for presence in the territory than is usually considered.
Political confrontation and the specter of violence appeared in this scenario as elements external to the region. Whether due to the telegraph offices with their “foreign” employees or the participation of members of the Catholic Church, the moments of destabilization were caused by the territory’s relationship with the outside world.
In a similar way, the two-party system operated locally. Just as liberalism and conservatism actively articulated the territory with national dynamics, placing Chocó on the map of liberal regions, they also generated destabilization, nervousness and limited the possibility of there being a unity of interests among the inhabitants of the region. region.
In particular, it was the presidential elections that gave more meaning to local political participation and the two occasions in which liberalism presented itself with its own candidate in the presidential race (1922 and 1930) coincided with those of greater political participation in Chocó in the period. .
As observed in the press of the time, the Choco population’s monitoring of each part of the electoral process was close; In fact, the complaints occupied preferential spaces in the newspapers, as demonstrated by the multiple letters and queries sent to Bogotá and responded to within a few days.
If necessary, the courts were resorted to. The elections were considered legitimate events to define the Government of the territory. The region’s close monitoring of these processes also shows greater control by its inhabitants than is assumed for these places and on these dates. Chocó, despite being located in the jungle, was far from living under the “law of the forest.”
Rather, what he prided himself on—oblivious to the pressure exerted by the Catholic Church in the “inland villages,” the “twenty-juliero speeches by orators,” or the “electoral schemes” in other regions of the country—was of to be a “civilized center” in which the Chocoano voter was reduced to consigning in “peace and tranquility” the “most sacred duty of a citizen.”