Extracts from Miranda’s Leading Journalist Publications in London 1810
摘要
After having exhausted his direct possibilities of influencing the British cabinets, Miranda changed his method, applying a modern propaganda strategy. He published significant journalistic works aimed at directly addressing British citizens and informing the public that the government was not preserving longer-term economic and geopolitical British interests by not supporting an emancipation plan for Spanish America. At the same time, this strategy allows him to circumvent the authorities’ control over his mail by having his publications signed by friends. The first publication is a 300-pages book signed by Antepara dedicated to Miranda’s projects with precise arguments, developing his constitutional principles from his conception that socio-economic development depends upon the good governance that was impossible under the Spanish colonial regime, to the proposed constitutional formula based upon the local realities and institutions (“Cabildos”) combined with some thinkers he referred to. Focusing on his fears that Napoleon could destroy his plan by confiscating the Spanish colonies, he explained the win-win scenario that would benefit Britain and the world, including the projected Panama Canal. The second publication, launched in March 1810, was a biweekly Spanish journal, “El Colombiano,” which served as a vehicle for disseminating his emancipatory ideas throughout the Spanish empire. The selected excerpts focus on the essential advice for a successful revolution by serving as a counter-example to the French Revolution.