by Carlos Schmidt
Recently while in Guatemala City, I visited the City Museum. Among the many displays was the Declaration of Independence from Spain signed by delegates from the Kingdom of Guatemala, including Nicaragua’s Miguel de Lareynaga. The room where the Declaration was signed was a bit stuffy and no one else was there. I wondered to myself what that day was like on September 14, 1821 when a group of criollos, or upper crust colonists, decided to cut ties to the mother country and form their own government. Why they did so makes for an interesting tale.
Aside from a major uprising in Granada in 1812, the independence movement throughout Central America was characterized by smallish riots and plots that were all uncovered before they amounted to much. In Nicaragua, the independence movement centered around three men: Juan Arguello, Manuel Antonio de la Cerda, and Miguel Lareynaga. But to really understand why independence finally occurred, events in Spain must be considered.
After the brilliant reign of Carlos III, which ended in 1783, Spain was ruled by Carlos IV, son of Carlos III, and then by his son, Ferdinand VII. Both father and son proved to be some of the stupidest kings Spain ever produced, somewhat like the characters in the movie “Dumb and Dumber.”
Moreover, Ferdinand VII turned out to be one of the most arrogant kings in European history. As a footnote to his legacy, he left a daughter, Isabela II, who caused two civil wars and during her reign several decades later, she was kicked out of Spain by the Spanish army for being a public embarrassment for having too many public affairs with various gentlemen.
In 1807, Napoleon Bonaparte invaded the Iberian Peninsula to punish the Portuguese King for backing the British in the Napoleonic Wars. Once in Spain, Napoleon captured both Carlos IV and his moronic son Ferdinand VII, kept them prisoners in Bayonne, France, and by a sort of parlor trick, got both men to renounce their rights to the throne of Spain. Napoleon promptly filled the vacancy he had created by appointing his older brother, José Bonaparte, called lovingly Pepe Botella by his Spanish subjects because of his love of Spanish wine.
This change in dynasty caused much questioning about who was the legitimate king, and most colonists continued calling Ferdinand VII the rightful monarch. In Mexico, rebellion broke out in 1810 and 1811 based upon liberal ideas, but by 1815 the Mexican Independence movement was extinguished. In the provinces of Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua, there were some riots and calls for independence, particularly in Rivas and León. But these were suppressed easily. Not so easy to suppress was the rebellion and uprising in Granada.
By December 1811, the city government of Granada favored independence. Soon after, they kicked all European Spaniards out of Granada, most of whom were bureaucrats working for the imperial government. They hoofed it to Masaya and sent a complaint to the Captain-General of the kingdom of Guatemala, General José Bustamante. His reaction was to send the largest army available, more than 1000 men, led by Sergeant-Major Pedro Gutiérrez, to attack the plaza of Granada.
The insurgents were led by Juan Arguello and a relative of his, Manuel Antonio de la Cerda, who controlled the city government. The main plaza of Granada was barricaded and fortified with 12 large caliber cannons. On April 12, 1812 the two forces met and there was much fighting between Xalteva and the main square. After the first day of clashes, there were 28 casualties on the royalist side and an unknown number among the insurgents. The royalist army retreated to Masaya and soon after began talks with the insurgent forces. On April 22, there was a truce and both sides swore to end their differences and stop fighting. Everyone was to go home happily with no reprisals. On April 28, the Royalists peacefully took back the plaza of Granada and the matter was apparently resolved.
When he learned of the truce, Captain-General José Bustamante rejected it, saying he would make no deal with rebels. He gave orders for the ringleaders to be secretly arrested and tried by a drumhead court. The ringleaders were arrested and tried as ordered, and Arguello and de la Cerda were sentenced to death and their property was confiscated. After two years of inquisitorial trials and humiliations, both men had their sentences commuted to life in prison in the San Sebastian fortress in Cadiz, Spain. This effectively ended the local movement for independence in Nicaragua. But events in Europe kept the pot bubbling.
In September 1812, José Napoleon promulgated a new constitution for Spain, one that did away with many of the medieval privileges of the aristocracy and incorporated some of the ideas of the French Revolution. This did not sit well with the Spanish and colonial aristocracy.
In 1814, with help from the Duke of Wellington, Spanish forces defeated French forces in Spain. Following the Battle of Leipzig in Germany and the defeat of all of his armies, Napoleon abdicated and was sent into exile on the island of Elba. Ferdinand VII was restored to power in Spain and he abruptly undid all of the mildly liberal acts of the Courts of Cadiz, a sort of rump parliament that had acted to preserve his legitimacy in a part of Spain not controlled by Napoleon, and he completely repudiated the Constitution of 1812. He reinstituted the Inquisition and that served to irritate most of his supporters.
The Duke of Wellington made a lightning visit to Spain to maintain the status quo of the government. Meanwhile, Nicaragua’s dynamic duo of Arguello and de la Cerda shared a cell together in Cadiz. And most likely that was where animosity between the two men grew. They had close familial ties and one theory has it that when relatives sent them money or material support, one may have taken part of the other’s share. What is clear is that both men were linked together by fate and they ended up hating each other by the time they left Cadiz.
In 1817, Ferdinand VII married and proclaimed a general amnesty for all political prisoners. Arguello and de la Cerda were freed. They returned to Nicaragua and things appeared to be peaceful, but not for long.
In 1820, again at Cadiz, an armada and an army of 30,000 men were assembled to sail to Peru to fight the insurgents there who had temporarily defeated the Spaniards. There was a riot led by one Captain Riego and the mutiny spread throughout the Spanish Royal Army. Riego, for the time being, ran Spain and Ferdinand VII was forced to accept and re-promulgate the constitution of 1812, well disliked by the aristocracy.
This also upset royalists throughout New Spain and the Kingdom of Guatemala and this time, from a conservative perspective, plotting began to try to preserve the status quo by breaking away from Spain and establishing separate governments. Agustin Iturbide, a royalist cavalryman noted for killing Mexican insurgents in Mexico City declared independence. In the provinces of Guatemala, discussion centered around forming a government of the provinces of the Kingdom of Guatemala, and on September 14, 1821 the declaration was signed declaring the Kingdom of Guatemala that consisted of Chiapas, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, all independent from Spain.
Nicaragua’s delegate was Miguel de Lareynaga, one of the best educated men in Nicaragua and Guatemala. His interests included geology and he is known for his musings about the Masaya Volcano. (The museum in the national park there has a display mentioning these.)
Events continued to change the political landscape. For 18 months, Nicaragua decided to become part of Mexico with the rest of Central America. This ended when a junior officer of Iturbide’s, General López de Santa Ana, and some of his friends booted Iturbide out of Mexico. Iturbide returned the next year and was stood against a wall at Soto la Marina and shot. His heart was placed in a nave in the Metropolitan Cathedral of Mexico City. In 1823, French King Louis XVIII sent a 100,000 man army to invade Spain and restored Ferdinand VII to his full powers. The Inquisition was again reinstated, the constitution of 1812 was again abolished, and Captain Riego was executed.
In 1824, Nicaragua exploded in a bloody civil war that ended with Manuel Antonio de la Cerda being elected President and Juan Arguello Vice-President of Nicaragua. Cerda’s presidency proved to be unpopular as he enacted a series of laws that infuriated everyone. For example, all books prohibited by the Church actually were burned; he permitted no dances or playing of music; no one could allow anyone stay at their house unless they were a close friend; no travel in the interior of the country was permitted without a passport; no men could stand at street corners, nor could men stand on streets where women walked.
The two men bickered and de la Cerda resigned. Arguello came to power and began shooting his opponents. In 1828, he sent a squad to Cerda’s house in Rivas and pulled him out of bed, stood him barefoot against the wall of the partially built church in Rivas, and shot him.
Soon after, Arguello, now undisputed president, arrested many Cerda supporters and supposedly sent them by boat from Granada to El Castillo on the San Juan River. He later said the boat sunk and all aboard drowned. Unfortunately for him, the winds on Lake Nicaragua blew back towards shore and many of the bodies of the persons that allegedly had drowned washed up on the beaches of Granada, all with a bullet hole and with rocks tied to the bodies. He had had the men murdered on an island called La Pelona across the great lake from Granada and then weighed them down with rocks. But once the bodies started to decompose and bloat, they floated to shore, laying bare the lies and crimes of Arguello. That and other crimes and misdemeanors caused more unrest and Arguello left the presidency. He later died penniless in Guatemala City.
The cycle of events that had brought about Nicaragua’s independence finally ended, but Nicaragua was to suffer through 40 more years of tumultuous history, including the invasion of American nutcase and filibusterer William Walker, until the revolutionary generation died of bullets and old age. In 1870, peace and tranquility finally prevailed for a time in Nicaragua.
