MIGUEL ABADÍA MÉNDEZ: BIOGRAPHY - HISTORY - 2025

Miguel Abadía Méndez (1867-1947) was a Colombian politician, journalist and jurist who came to occupy the presidency of his country for four years. Abadía also held other public positions, among which some ministries such as Finance or Government stand out. He is considered the last president of the so-called conservative hegemony.

As a jurist, he served as a Circuit Prosecutor and as a Prosecutor for the Tribunal in Bogotá. One of his great passions was teaching: he was first a professor and then emeritus professor of Law. Abadía was also noted for being skilled in many different disciplines, and his literary gifts were highly regarded in his day.

Thanks to his good command of the word, he wrote for a time in the newspapers El Ensayo and El Colombiano. Likewise, he was the author of some books and a translator of others. It is considered that in his presidential term there were lights and shadows. It was a period of economic problems in the country, a situation that affected their work.

His work in foreign relations was very important, since he signed several agreements with neighboring countries to solve border problems. However, among the shadows of his government stands out the so-called banana massacre, with more than 3,000 workers killed after going on strike to demand better wages.

Studies and first jobs

Abadía Méndez belonged to the so-called generation of political grammarians. They were known by that name given their great knowledge of public speaking and their command of language.

Similarly, he was the last of the Colombian presidents of the conservative hegemony, a period of several decades in which all the leaders belonged to that ideology.

The end of that hegemony was not due so much to the actions of his government, despite its bloody shadows, as to the change in the social, economic and political context.

On the one hand, since the beginning of the 20th century, industrial activity grew without stopping. This caused the first trade union movements and parties to the left to appear, growing conflicts with some workers who worked in almost slave-owning conditions.

On the other hand, the economic crisis that affected the entire world at the time broke out for Méndez. The high debt contracted by its predecessor, as well as the first effects of the crisis of 29, caused the economic indices to drop a lot.

Studies

From a wealthy family, Abadía Méndez was born in Coello (then called La Vega de los Padres), Tolima, on July 5, 1867. He soon moved to study in Bogotá, at the Colegio del Espíritu Santo.

According to his biographers, he was a child with great abilities, especially in the field of writing.

He was also interested in law from a very young age, so he chose this career when he entered the Catholic University and, later, the Colegio Mayor de Nuestra Señora del Rosario. In this last center, in 1888, he graduated as a doctor in Law and Political Science.

First jobs

Already during his student days he showed interest in the world of writing and politics. Together with a colleague he founded a literary newspaper which they called El Ensayo. In addition, he also created another dedicated to politics that bore the same name.

A few years after graduating, he landed the position of senior editor at the publication El Colombiano, which supported Caro's candidacy for the country's vice presidency.

In addition, he had time before being president to publish several books on various topics, which shows the breadth of his interests. These books were Compendium of Modern History, Notions of Latin Prosody, and Compendium of Universal Geography.

Entry into politics

Abadía Méndez, who was also a member of the Colombian Jurisprudence and Language Academies, became a prominent member of the Conservative Party, obtaining numerous political positions in the almost two decades that followed.

Conspiracy against Manuel Antonio Sanclemente

Even before entering any government, Abadía had played a significant role in a conspiracy within the party to overthrow then-president Manuel Antonio Sanclemente.

A faction of the conservatives, among whom was Abadía, considered that the government's handling of the Thousand Day War and its lack of legislative activity were harmful to the nation. That is why they conspired to replace Sanclemente with José Manuel Marroquín.

Ministries

After participating in this change of president and with Marroquín in office, Abadía went on to occupy various ministries, either as minister or as manager. From 1900 he had responsibility for Foreign Relations, Finance and Public Instruction.

After the parenthesis in his political career that the administration of Rafal Reyes supposed, in 1909 he was called again to occupy the Government portfolio.

Later, during the tenure of José Vicente Concha, an old partner in the conspiracy against Marroquín, he returned to the same ministry.

Already in the legislature of 1924, with Pedro Nel Ospina in the presidency, he was again appointed minister of government and, at the same time, in charge of the ministry of posts and telegraphs.

Presidency

The 1926 elections, to which Abadía is presented as a candidate, had a very important peculiarity. No other candidate wanted to run against him.

The Liberal Party decided to boycott the voting, so on August 7 of that year he was appointed as a candidate with a practically monochrome parliament.

Initially it had good approval ratings, mainly due to the public works that Noel Ospina had started.

However, these works had a very important negative part and that conditioned the mandate of Abadía Méndez. During the Abadía Méndez period, all expenses had to be paid by foreign loans, which was generating a huge public debt.

Economic crisis and social context

Given the situation, Abadía had to request another loan of 10 million to be able to continue the most important works. Later, she needed another $ 60 million and a last $ 35 million for new infrastructure improvements.

To this must be added the world crisis of 29, which also reached Colombia. The first effect, even before that year, was the impossibility of obtaining more international credits, for which many works had to stop.

All this had a great impact on the town, which suffered great economic problems with great levels of poverty.

The workers who were unemployed migrated to the city and disorders began to appear. This led to the appearance of unions and social struggles for the first time in the country.

Massacre of the banana plantations

One of Colombia's sources of wealth had been the production of fruit, almost all in the hands of US companies.

The workers' working conditions were infamous, as were the wages and safety. For this reason, the mobilizations of the workers had these companies as their objective from very early on.

In 1928 the workers of the United Fruit Company began the largest strike seen so far in Colombia. There were 25,000 who followed the call, which should last at least a month if no agreements were reached.

The Abadía government found itself between fear of the specter of communism and the threat of the United States to invade the country if the strike did not end. The result was a carnage.

During a peaceful meeting of the workers, between December 5 and 6, 1928, the army responded by firing indiscriminately. The so-called Banana Massacre ended with more than 3,000 deaths.

International activity

Among the positive aspects of his presidency, it is worth noting that Abadía signed treaties with three neighboring countries, with which several territorial conflicts were peacefully ended.

In this way, he signed the Lozano-Salomón treaty with Peru, to clarify the borders. It also signed an agreement with Brazil and, finally, the Esguerra-Bárcenas treaty with Nicaragua, by which Colombia's sovereignty over the Archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina was ratified.

Withdrawal and death

After finishing his presidential term, Abadía Méndez retired from politics, dedicating himself to other activities without public repercussion. He died in La Unión on May 9, 1847, in a farm that he had acquired.

References

1. Abello, Alberto. The Cheerful Conservative Republic. Obtained from revistacredencial.com
2. Colombia.com. Miguel Abadía Méndez. Obtained from colombia.com
3. Sanchez Arango, Silvio. Miguel Abadía Méndez - Biography. Obtained from biosiglos.com
4. The Biography. Biography of Miguel Abadía y Méndez. Retrieved from thebiography.us
5. Revolvy. Miguel Abadía Méndez. Retrieved from revolvy.com
6. Bushnell, David. The Making of Modern Colombia: A Nation in Spite of Itself. Recovered from books.google.es
7. Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture. Abadía Méndez, Miguel. Retrieved from encyclopedia.com
8. Elias Caro, Jorge Enrique; Vidal Ortega, Antonino. The worker's massacre of 1928 in the Magdalena Zona Bananera - Colombia. An unfinished story. Retrieved from scielo.org.com