Vicente Barrios

Vicente Barrios, Paraguayan general, war and naval minister and brother-in-law of the President Francisco Solano López ( Angelo Agostini ).

Vi (n) cente Barrios Bedoya (* 1825 in Asunción , Paraguay ; † December 21, 1868 in today's Departamento Central , Paraguay) was a Paraguayan officer and politician and the son-in-law of President Carlos Antonio López (1790-1862). Under López and his successor, the Marshal and President Francisco Solano López (1827-1870), Barrios held a number of positions and served as a commander in some major battles and military campaigns during the Triple Alliance War .

Life

Barrios joined the Paraguayan army in 1843 and quickly made a career. In 1847 he was promoted to captain and in 1853 to lieutenant colonel. As such, he was one of Francisco Solano López's entourage during his trip to Europe from 1853 to 1854. This trip, on which his father had sent him, primarily pursued the purpose of acquiring modern ships and armaments, but also to recruit scientists, technicians and settlers for Paraguay. After his return to Paraguay, López was appointed Vice President by his father, and Barrios was promoted to colonel. In this function he also took over the management of an ultimately unsuccessful colonization project in 1855 , with which the present-day city of Villa Hayes was to be re-established as "New Bordeaux" by French immigrants.

Vicente Barrios, Paraguayan general ( Le Monde illustré , 1865).

In 1856 Barrios married López's sister Inocencia and thus became a member of the country's social elite and the brother-in-law of Francisco Solano López, who succeeded his father as president in 1862. It is therefore not surprising that, after López declared war on Brazil , Barrios was appointed commander-in-chief of the two army units that invaded the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso from Alta Paraguay on separate routes from mid-December 1864 . The Mato Grosso campaign of the Paraguayan armed forces was of little strategic use to the country, but it brought in significant quantities of weapons and ammunition as well as tens of thousands of cattle and other booty. Barrios also took the opportunity to enrich himself personally and had large quantities of stolen goods transported by ship to Paraguay for himself and his brother-in-law.

Upon his return from Mato Grosso, Barrios was promoted to Brigadier General and Minister of War and Navy. In this role he succeeded Venancio López , the president's brother. Barrios retained this function even when he was recalled to active military service after the invasion of Paraguayan territory by an army from the Triple Alliance countries Argentina , Brazil and Uruguay .

On May 24, 1866, Barrios commanded one of the four Paraguayan attack columns in the First Battle of Tuyuti . This battle, which López had designed as a large-scale surprise attack with which the Allied army was to be crushed and driven out of Paraguay, ended, however, with a heavy defeat for his armed forces. The coordination of the Paraguayan army units, which had to march through difficult terrain, was not successful. This had meant that they had not attacked at the same time, but one after the other - Barrio's attack column, for example, had only reached their area of operation a few hours after the start of the battle - and each time they had been repulsed with heavy losses.

In November 1867, López decided to attack the Allied army camp again and put his brother-in-law in command of the attacking force. The Second Battle of Tuyuti that followed ended with another defeat for the attackers, but López was delighted with the amount of guns and supplies that had been captured or destroyed by his army during the battle and promoted Barrios to major general.

The good relationship between the two men came to an end, however, after the Brazilian Navy had succeeded in February 1868 in overcoming the Paraguayan river barriers at the Humaitá fortress and bombarding the capital Asunción for the first time. López accused Barrios of treason and placed him under house arrest. The hunt for real and supposed conspirators that followed, which led to a wave of executions known as the “San Fernando massacre”, ultimately fell victim to Barrios. After a previous suicide attempt , he was shot on December 21, 1868 on López's orders.

Barrios' wife, López's sister, who was also accused of treason and arrested, survived the brutal treatment in detention and the war. She later had a child with a Brazilian officer who is rumored to be General José Antônio Correia da Câmara .

literature

John H. Tuohy: Biographical Sketches from the Paraguayan War - 1864-1870 . CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform 2011, ISBN 978-1-4662-4838-0 , pp. 7f. (Keyword: Barrios, Vincente ).

Web links

General Vicente Barrios (photo on www.bibliotecarepublicana.com)
General Vicente Barrios Bedoya (oil painting by the Paraguayan painter Jaime Bestard)

References and comments

↑ According to Tuohy, p. 7, Barrios' appointment took place on December 12, 1864, one day before the declaration of war on Brazil. The start of Barrios column in the Mato Grosso began Chris Leuchars: To the Bitter End. Paraguay and the War of the Triple Alliance (= Contributions in Military Studies). Greenwood Press, Westport 2002, ISBN 978-0-313-32365-2 , p. 35, according to December 14, 1864. Deviating from this, there are other dates in the literature for the declaration of war on Brazil and the invasion of Brazil Mato Grosso. In this context, it is particularly important to note in Leuchars 2002, p. 33, that López had already informed the Brazilian ambassador in Asunción on November 13, 1864 that - according to López's point of view - Paraguay accepted the state of war imposed on him by Brazil . It is therefore very likely that Tuohy made a mistake in his declaration of war.
↑ See Leuchars 2002, pp. 33–37, but above all Thomas L. Whigham: The Paraguayan war. Vol. 1: Causes and early conduct (= Studies in War, Society, and the Military). Univ. of Nebraska Press, Lincoln et al. a. 2002, ISBN 0-8032-4786-9 , pp. 192ff., Where reference is also made to Barrios' less creditable troop leadership.

personal data
SURNAME	Barrios, Vicente
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Barrios Bedoya, Vincente
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Paraguayan general and politician
DATE OF BIRTH	1825
PLACE OF BIRTH	Asunción
DATE OF DEATH	December 21, 1868

[1] According to Tuohy, p. 7, Barrios' appointment took place on December 12, 1864, one day before the declaration of war on Brazil. The start of Barrios column in the Mato Grosso began Chris Leuchars: To the Bitter End. Paraguay and the War of the Triple Alliance (= Contributions in Military Studies). Greenwood Press, Westport 2002, ISBN 978-0-313-32365-2 , p. 35, according to December 14, 1864. Deviating from this, there are other dates in the literature for the declaration of war on Brazil and the invasion of Brazil Mato Grosso. In this context, it is particularly important to note in Leuchars 2002, p. 33, that López had already informed the Brazilian ambassador in Asunción on November 13, 1864 that - according to López's point of view - Paraguay accepted the state of war imposed on him by Brazil . It is therefore very likely that Tuohy made a mistake in his declaration of war.

[2] See Leuchars 2002, pp. 33–37, but above all Thomas L. Whigham: The Paraguayan war. Vol. 1: Causes and early conduct (= Studies in War, Society, and the Military). Univ. of Nebraska Press, Lincoln et al. a. 2002, ISBN 0-8032-4786-9 , pp. 192ff., Where reference is also made to Barrios' less creditable troop leadership.