21 Facts About Rafael Reyes

Rafael Reyes Prieto was a Colombian politician and soldier who was the Chief of Staff of the Colombian National Army and President of Colombia.

Rafael Reyes was born in Santa Rosa de Viterbo, Boyaca, Colombia on December 5,1849.

Rafael Reyes was the son of Ambrosio Reyes Moreno, who, a widower with five children, and remarried with Ms.

Right in the middle of the war, president Rafael Reyes Nunez gave him the responsibility of leading operations to conquer back Panama as part of the Colombian territory; the mission was originally under command of the general of the division, Gral.

Miguel Montoya, but Rafael Reyes was the one in actual command.

Meanwhile, President Rafael Reyes Nunez worked in establishing a firm and centralized organization in the State.

On November 11th 1885, when the National Constituent Assembly was established, Rafael Reyes obtained a seat his participation in the Magna Carta was somehow unfortunate, due to the fact that Miguel Antonio Caro opposed most of his motions.

In 1896, in the days when Rafael Reyes had chances to be presidential candidate, Caro decided to send him off to Paris as the Ambassador of Colombia, which kept him away from the presidential race in the 1898 presidential elections; and interfering with his involvement in the War of a Thousand Days' War.

Since 1902 Rafael Reyes lived in Mexico while arranging and setting up everything for the 1904 presidential elections.

In Washington, after learning that the Hay-Banu-Varilla treaty with Panama had been signed, Rafael Reyes dissolved the diplomatic commission and gave up any effort to engage into military confrontation against the United States; from Washington, he wrote:.

Rafael Reyes would have to wait until four year later.

The mottos of President Rafael Reyes' administration were: "peace, harmony and work" and "less politics and more administration".

The fact that Rafael Reyes had been away from the country during the years of civil war gave him much credulity in the eyes of both parties.

Rafael Reyes convened a General Constitutional Assembly, integrated by members of both parties.

Rafael Reyes was a professional administrator and social reformer, more than a politician.

Rafael Reyes's administration was very protectionist, fomented the industries of textiles and sugar.

Rafael Reyes expanded the operation of oil refineries, and the manufacturing of paper, glass and steel.

Rafael Reyes encouraged and promoted the growing of banana, coffee and cotton.

Some members of the conservative party showed contempt for the way president Rafael Reyes had offered reconciliation toward the liberal party, mainly after the civil Thousand Days' War.

Rafael Reyes died of pneumonia in Bogota on 18 February 1921.

President Rafael Reyes is mentioned in Gabriel Garcia Marquez's 1985 novel, Love in the Time of Cholera.