Caro, Miguel Antonio (1843–1909)
Caro, Miguel Antonio (1843–1909)
Miguel Antonio Caro (b. 10 November 1843; d. 5 August 1909), Colombian president (1894–1898). Miguel Antonio Caro lived his entire life in the area of Bogotá, where he was born, and was a staunch defender of traditional Catholic and Hispanic values. A professor of Latin at the Universidad Nacional and expert in Spanish grammar and linguistics, Caro achieved distinction as a scholar (collaborating with Rufino José Cuervo) but is chiefly remembered as one of the architects of the regeneration that put an end to Liberal hegemony in Colombia. He was the principal author of the centralist, proclerical Constitution of 1886. As a "Nationalist" Conservative he became vice president under Rafael Núñez in 1892 but in reality was acting president, completing the term (1894–1898) after Núñez's death. His doctrinaire rigidity alienated both Liberals and the "Historical" faction of Conservatives, thus contributing to the outbreak of the War of the Thousand Days that began shortly after he left the presidency.
See alsoColombia, Constitutions: Overview; War of the Thousand Days.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Guillermo Torres García, Miguel Antonio Caro, su personalidad política (1956).
Jaime Jaramillo Uribe, El pensamiento colombiano en el siglo Xix (1964), chap. 19.
Charles W. Bergquist, Coffee and Conflict in Colombia, 1886–1910 (1978), pp. 42-47 and passim.
Additional Bibliography
Sierra Mejía, Rubén. Miguel Antonio Caro y la cultura de su época. Bogotá: Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Sede Bogotá, 2002.
Valderrama Andrade, Carlos. Miguel Antonio Caro y la regeneración: Apuntes y documentos para la comprensión de una época. Santafé de Bogotá: Instituto Caro y Cuervo, 1997.