El Espectador - History

History

Since its foundation in 1887, El Espectador acted as a speaker for the Colombian Liberal Party, at the time opposed to the administrations of the conservative Regeneration. It was closed by the authorities several times:

• 8 July 1887, by the Rafael Núñez administration, 134 days after its first issue, until 10 January 1888.
• 27 October 1888, by the then designated Carlos Holguín, until 12 February 1891; previously, the Catholic Church had forbidden its followers to read the newspaper, because of criticism of the lavishness of the Catholic Church in public celebrations made by its director.
• On 26 September 1892 the government fined the newspaper with $200.000 after considering one of its articles "subversive".
• 8 August 1893, by Antioquia governor Abraham García, until 14 March 1896. Fidel Cano Gutiérrez was jailed.
• On 27 June 1896, until 27 April 1897, due to a press law recently passed by the Congress.
• The outbreak of the Thousand Days War made El Espectador suspend its activities between 19 October 1899 and 16 October 1903
• On 17 December 1904 it was suspended again, after facing difficulties and opposing the Rafael Reyes administration. It appeared again on 2 January 1913, as an evening daily in Medellín.

Since 10 February 1915 El Espectador has been simultaneously published in Medellín and Bogotá. Its Medellín edition was suspended on 20 July 1923.

In 1948, after the murder of Liberal Party leader Jorge Eliecer Gaitán, its circulation was suspended for three days. Since then, El Espectador has had to deal with the censorship of the then ruling Conservative Party several times. On 9 November 1949, Luis Cano Villegas, its director, resigned in protest for the seizure of the entire edition by the government, being replaced by his brother Gabriel Cano Villegas. On 6 September 1952, its facilities, then located in downtown Bogotá, as well as the building of competitor El Tiempo and the houses of Liberal Party leaders Eduardo Santos and Carlos Lleras Restrepo, were looted and partially destroyed, apparently with the tacit consent of the government. It reappeared on 16 September.

In 1955 the newspaper, outspokenly opposed to the military government of Gustavo Rojas Pinilla, publishing several articles by Alberto Lleras Camargo, with a substantial effect on public opinion. In December, the government accused El Espectador of several accounting and tax irregularities, and fined the newspaper $10,000 on 20 December 1955. On 6 January 1956 the National Taxes Direction imposed on El Espectador a fine of $600,000. Its directors, who were forbidden to respond to the accusations against the paper, suspended its publication that day.

In order to replace El Espectador, on 15 February 1956 appeared El Independiente, directed by Alberto Lleras Camargo, who retired in April when the newspaper was closed for several months. It was published again in 1957 but due to an agreement by the opposition newspapers, it suspended its publication on 5 May. Five days later, Rojas Pinilla was ousted. El Independiente circulated until 1 June 1958, when it was formally replaced by El Espectador.

In 1964 its headquarters moved from downtown to western Bogotá, on the avenida 68, the area becoming known as Avenida El Espectador. At the inauguration, its then director Gabriel Cano said: "if El Tiempo has the best corner in Bogotá, El Espectador has the best corner in the country."

Throughout the 20th century El Espectador was the main Liberal newspaper, with El Tiempo, both holding an important political influence. Among its main contributors it had some of the most important Colombian journalists at the time, like Luis Eduardo Nieto Caballero, Alberto Lleras Camargo, Eduardo Zalamea Borda, Gabriel García Márquez, Eduardo Caballero Calderón, Klim, Antonio Panesso Robledo, Inés de Montaña, Alfonso Castillo Gómez, José Salgar, as well as cartoonists Hernán Merino, Pepón, Consuelo Lago, and Osuna.