Castro
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
CIPRIANO, ex-president of Venezuela. He was born in 1860 in the province of Tachira, and was a member of the Venezuelan Senate at the fall of President Palacio (1892), when he left the capital. Leading a successful uprising against Andrade in 1899, he occupied Caracas, and the next year was elected provisional president, in 1901 being chosen president for six years. But he rapidly developed into a tyrannical, vainglorious, corrupt and disastrous ruler, of the most arbitrary and shameless character, so that the affairs of Venezuela became disastrously entangled, its commerce paralyzed, and its relations with other nations seriously compromised. He "revised" the constitution, enabling himself to be re-elected at the end of his term, and so mistreated foreigners in business in Venezuela and the creditor nations that had made loans to the country that Great Britain, Germany, and Italy at length threatened and began violent measures. He asked the United States to aid him in settlements, but when agreements had been made to submit all to the Hague Tribunal and (1904) it had decided in favor of preferential treatment for the creditor nations, he evaded all settlements, and in matters between Venezuela and the United States he refused either settlement or arbitration. During the complications, however (he being supposed to have secreted abroad large sums to his individual credit), he went suddenly to Europe in 1908, as stated, to undergo a serious surgical operation, and in December of that year he was formally superseded by Gen. Juan Vicente Gomez as president. Since then he has been prevented from returning to Venezuela. In March, 1909, the Venezuelans confirmed his temporary resignation of the presidency in 1906 by "constitutionally suspending" him and enacting his banishment.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
When Collier's wrote this in 1921, Castro was a living exile "prevented from returning to Venezuela" and still a plausible threat to the government in Caracas. He never did return: he died in exile at Santurce, Puerto Rico, on 4 December 1924, having failed in repeated attempts to regain power. Gen. Juan Vicente G mez, described here only as his successor, went on to rule Venezuela until his death in 1935, and it was under him that the oil discoveries of the 1920s transformed the country the article calls commercially paralyzed. The 1902-03 blockade by Britain, Germany and Italy and the Hague ruling of 1904 are now read chiefly as the trigger for Theodore Roosevelt's corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, and modern historians treat Castro less as a uniquely "shameless" figure than as the first of the Andean caudillos who dominated Venezuela to 1935.
Written for this edition, 2026.