Peru in the 1830s

In Article Thirty the Protector was “7. To nominate the Senators of the General Congress…  9. To fill up all the military and naval commissions.”[6] The Protector basically got to appoint the main members of all the positions of the General Congress. As previously mentioned, not everyone in Peru and Bolivia approved of the Confederation. Santa Cruz had enemies, and by being able to elect his own Senate, he could keep his enemies away from power.  In Article Twenty-eight of the Treaty, “The Protector shall remain 10 years in the exercise of his functions, and be re-elected unless condemned by the Senate to deprivation of office.”[7] The representatives of the decree of the Confederation wanted to directly state a lifelong appointment with the title His Highness, but Santa Cruz rejected this idea. This article would have allowed for Andrés de Santa Cruz to be president for life, without specifically stating it.  Having Article Thirty in the treaty allowed him to hand pick those he would work with. He needed as much power and control to be able to rule his Confederation the way he wished to, not wanting to cater to the provinces the way he did when initially forming the Confederation.

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Andrés de Santa Cruz was the Supreme Protector of the Peru-Bolvian Confederation, but he did not rule alone. He still allowed for the regions to have their own presidents. By the time the Confederation took hold, it consisted of three countries, Bolivia, North Peru, and South Peru. The president in Bolivia was General José Miguel de Velasco. In North Peru, General Luis Orbegoso claimed the presidency, and in South Peru, Ramón Herrra Rodado. Native to Chile, Rodado had similar views to Santa Cruz and supported the Confederation. He joined the negotiation of peace with Chile in 1837 after a failed Chilean invasion on Arequipa. Chile did not honor the peace agreement and after the fall of the Peru-Bolivian Confederation he left the country for good. José Miguel de Velasco, the president of Bolivia, took Santa Cruz’s role once he became the Supreme Leader of the Peru-Bolivian Confederation.  Previously he had been vice-president of Bolivia. He had been close to Santa Cruz, they had a similar path to power in the army. Velasco had risen to preeminence early on, he initially supported the Confederation Santa Cruz proposed, but as time went on, grew tired of it.[8]  Later he released a rejection of the Confederation. Prior to being president Orbegoso fought in the Peruvian army. He had opposing views to Gamarra, allowing him to be appointed to president when Gamarra’s term came to an end. Though this might not have been the most legitimate election. He was accused of being controlled by liberal leaders.  Santa Cruz appointed him to this position of presidency in North Peru because of Orbegoso’s alliance with him.

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This union never achieved one hundred percent acceptance, many Peruvians and Bolivians opposed the Confederation, but Santa Cruz had the power to quiet any opposition. He also never gave the provinces a direct answer to how the Confederation would run, allowing them to come up with their own plans and how to best benefit themselves. This made the provinces more agreeable to the confederation, since Santa Cruz capitalized on the provinces coming up with their own ideas. Santa Cruz also gained support by not allowing his military to get out of control. He gained loyalty from his troops by keeping the promises he made to them: paying them on time and allowing them to leave when their time finished. Santa Cruz also gained acceptance by not enforcing military recruitment.[9] This allowed him to defeat Gamarra in his own territory. Gamarra had disgruntled troops who did not believe they were appropriately compensated for their military service. Most of those who accepted the Confederation where from south Peru, like Cuzco and Arequipa and in Bolivia, La Paz.  These cities saw the Confederation as a return to the norm, before Bolivia gained its independence from Peru only a few years prior. Some of the supporting cities also saw the economic gain if they became the capital of the Confederation as well. Many cities backed Santa Cruz so long as he met their interests and they had a better deal than the next city. Internally, Peruvians worried the strength of the country would weaken and Bolivians worried Peru would become too powerful.[10]

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In truth, almost all the power rested in Santa Cruz, his position as Supreme Protector could not be elected by the public, neither could the federal government. “The Senators shall be nominated by the Supreme Judge of the Confederation from among those proposed by the electoral colleges of each department.”[11] Unlike Bolívar’s plan for an electoral power, no citizen voted on who ran the Confederation. “The Senators are irremovable, and shall only cease to be so by privation of office, or by having been condemned.”[12] Santa Cruz could essentially do whatever he wanted when it came to ruling, influenced by Simón Bolívar and how he constructed Bolivia’s constitution. Though Bolívar had power as lifelong president, he never wrote in his Constitutions that only he controlled the members of Congress.  The Bolivian president could “2. Propose the Vice-President to the Chambers, and to appoint, at his own pleasure, the Ministers of State. 3. Dismiss, at his pleasure, the Vice-President and the Ministers of State, whenever he considers it necessary.”[13]   If an electoral power voted in someone the president of Bolivia did not agree on, he could remove him and elect someone they preferred. Santa Cruz wanted that power, and this paper previously mentions Article Thirty and how Santa Cruz could appoint whomever he wished into powerful positions.  Despite the attempt to merge away from the autocratic characteristics Bolívar showed in his constitution, Santa Cruz managed to do the same with his Confederation

 

Even with his want to rule Peru so desperately, Santa Cruz did not want to take on their imperfections. As stated above, Santa Cruz had done wonders in Bolivia, drastically improving their economy, but it did not appear as if he, or other political leaders from Bolivia, were willing to take on the debts from Peru. “Each Republic shall pay the debts contacted by it previously to this Treaty. Those contracted by the former Peruvian Republic shall, in the same manner as its credits, be divided between the 2 Republics of North and South Peru, at the discretion of the General Congress.”[14] Nowhere in the Treaty does it state that Bolivia will assist Peru in their financial struggle. Dividing it up between Peru could be a disaster, especially if one had more to pay off than the other.