The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1901-11-04
'k|DNAPERs HOLD
COLOMBIA CHEF
Garry Aged President
S'anclemente Into
Captivity.
Venerable Head of the Re-
public Taken From His
Home in Villeta.
Special Dispatch to The Call.

HONDA, Sept 80, via New York, Nov.
S.-Dr. Manuel Antonio Sanclemente. the.
venerable President of the republic of Co.
lombia, has been kidnapped by orders of
political leaders, who had already
stripped him of power. Locked in i
suardor miserable parody on a sedan
chair in which courtiers once took their
ease, he is being hurried over rough
mountain roads from his home in villeta
department Of Cundinamarca, to his beau
''tui hacienda known as Pichihiat, in the
apartment of Csuca. He must be car
ed through the very heart Of two grea.
sains of the Andes, passing Honda.
lanizsles, Carriage, Tulua and Buga,
twns which gave him ovations while he
eercisied executive power. The greatest
screcy has been observed and every eff
Et has been made to prevent the facts
coming public for fear that friends ami
Pies of the deposed President might at
mpt to rescue him. No paper in the re .
lblic to-day would dare to print the bare
1T that Sanclemente had LETT Villeta,
nch less that he was a prisoner.
Firm in His Attitude.
he only charge that can be made
asinst Sanclemente is that while he re-
Iine,i at Villeta he was a constant men
q to these in control of the government
lBoigota. He had never varied in his
Elton since the day when he was rele-
sed to the background and the Vice
hsident assumed executive powerfully
$500 He maintained that this action
p been unconstitutional and that the
lfers of the Presidency could no more
hahen from him than the title of Pres
int. Ministers representing foreign
aeriments, after long refusing to rec
Gize Jose Manuel Marroquin eXecu-
.t lead of the nation, gave in and left
s z President in his retirement.
b. Iilleta, through Sanclementes residence
re, has stood in much the same rela
\ toward Bogota that Versailles occu-
Il toward Paris in the empire. Fashion
Re persons who had focked there to be
GEAR tho President, as well as to escape
suddenly forsook it, knowing that the ex-
isting complications rendered casual COM
municationS with Sanclemente dangerous.
1t had been assumed by those who man
aged the coup of July, 1900, that Sancle
mente's chagrln at his loss of power would
lead him to leave the neighborhood of Be-
gotta. The old gentleman merely stood his
ground, continuing to regard himself as
President and awaiting the moment when
he would be recalled to authority. Those
about him insist that he took no steps
against Vice President Marroquin's gov
eminent and that he scorned any form of
counterpart.
Rebels Are Still Active.
The plea on which power had been taken
from him was that he was Superannuated
and unable longer to discharge the duties
of his office. DR.. Marroquin, upon whom
the executive power was conferred, is in
appearance very nearly as old.
The revolution begain in October, 1899,
and lasted nine months. While Sancle-
mente was President de facto his troops
had destroyed the Liberal armies, but
there were grave complaints because the
country had not been entirely pacified.
DR.. Marroquin has had charge for nearly
fifteen months and no apparent progress
has been made. Armed bands still roam
through the interior and the slkirmishes
that occur daily tend merely to demon
strate the vitality of the rebels. Bulletins
are posted daily on the walls of Bogota
and republished in little newspapers, an
nounoing great victories for the Govern
ment, here. there and everywhere.