Where and when did the conception of regionalism
emerge in Colombia? From the first political independence in 1810. And the
characteristics of that first independence was that each province that at the
moment constituted (originally 13), were declared autonomous and independent
states.
That is, the leaders of each
province dreamed of following in the footsteps of the United States of America
by raising the possibility of making the nascent Colombia a federal government,
in which each state should have its own laws and police, with autonomy, this
experiment lasted little, because, since the central government in Bogota never
saw viable federalism, they preferred a central government.
The political crises were not
expected and this led to conflicts not only against Bogotá, but populations
that rebelled against the capitals of some of the main provinces, these
happened in cases as Cartagena and Cauca, the reasons? Many of the motives were
economic, but also political, of local interests.
The feeling of local
sovereignty remained in spite of the fact that the leaders of Bogotá were
victorious in their purpose of turning Colombia into a central government and
victorious in a military sense, for provincial, autonomous and sovereign sentiment
became a regional feeling, local identity.
Thus Bogota, like a kind of
queen in which the State revolves around her, consolidated its capital status
of the Republic of Colombia, thus constituting an identity of national character.
And now that the referendums
are in fashion, and that independence sentiments are surfacing in all parts of
the world, it would not be unreasonable to think of a hypothetical possibility
of each region submitting its own independence to referendum, and thus to
separate from Colombia.
