Pedro Carujo

Pedro Carujo
Born	1801 Barcelona, Anzoátegui State
Died	January 31, 1836 Valencia, Carabobo State
Allegiance	Gran Colombia  Venezuela
Years of service	1819 - 1836
Battles/wars	Venezuelan War of Independence Revolution of Reforms

Pedro Carujo (1801–1836) was a Venezuelan journalist and military man. He was one of the leaders of the Revolution of Reforms of 1835.

youth

Son of Canary José Carujo, realistic official and Juana Hernandez, Venezuelan. He received a good education, being of the few Venezuelans of his time who spoke and wrote the English and French. Although born in a home divided over the royalist cause and Republican, he joined the liberation movement as part of the battalion Orinoco quartered in Angostura (1819). In 1821, he participated under the command of General José Francisco Bermúdez, in the campaigns of Caracas and St. Lucia. With the rank of captain, he distinguished himself in making Maracaibo (1823), I was wounded in combat, so he moved to New Granada with the rank of sergeant.^[1]

In New Granada

He studied mathematics and analytical geometry, under the leadership of the Franciscan friar Tomás Sánchez Mora, part besides the intellectual circles grouped into various philosophical-literature societies from capital of New Granada, companies which would lead him to join Freemasonry which reached grade 18. In 1828, while serving as assistant General Staff of the department of Cundinamarca, was promoted to commander and selected by Simon Bolivar to chair the Military Academy was founded in Bogotá. Spite of this, he joined opponents of President Simón Bolívar, who perpetrated the attacks of September 25, 1828 against life of the Liberator.^[1]

He was sentenced to death but was saved thanks to a pardon granted by the Council of Ministers, after accepting of Rafael Urdaneta the idea of engaging with perjury to General Francisco de Paula Santander as a pretext for his conviction and death. Locked in prison in Bogota and then imprisoned in the Castle Bocachica of Cartagena. Venezuela expelled in March 1829, he was transferred to Solano castle in The Watcher Puerto Cabello from which he escaped (02/08/1829). However, soon after he was captured and returned in a humiliating way to the fort.^[1]

His time spent in prison as well as advocate for freedom, writing to the general José Antonio Páez and other officials of the regime; to publish articles and letters in El Fanal - newspaper Tomás Lander - that influenced the separatist pronouncement Puerto Cabello, known as La Cosiata (17/11/1829). Deported to Curaçao in early June 1830, the general amnesty decreed by Paez 25 of the same month allowed to return to Venezuela. He went to Maracaibo and organized a militia of 1,000 men, with whom he crossed the border and ventured on Riohacha, who had rebelled against the government of Rafael Urdaneta. In the vicinity of San José and the Mill, in January 1831, was defeated by the general Jose Felix Blanco, after which he would retire from the army in 1833. Subsequently, become the spokesman for a group of military and ranchers gathered around the general Santiago Mariño, Carujo fought from the columns of the newspaper El republicano the presidential candidacy of Dr. José María Vargas , whom he accused of being "realistic and unpatriotic" (1834).^[1]

Revolution and death

In 1835, he was one of the officers who led the Revolution of Reforms led by General Santiago Mariño, being in charge of capturing the President Vargas at home (08/07/1835). It was also at this time that there was a dialogue between them, whereby Carujo told Vargas: "Doctor Vargas, the world belongs to the brave", and he replied this: "the world is the right man", after which he went into exile to the island of Saint Thomas.

In front of the battalion Anzoategui Carujo was one of the most militant participants in that civil war, winning the battles of Cariaco (20/09/1835) and Carúpano (05/10/1835), where he defeated the general Francisco Esteban Gomez. Changed theater operations center to Puerto Cabello, dispersed in El Pino, near San Esteban (10/27/1835), the colonel and commanded Andrés Torellas turn of the 3 brigades attempted to take Valencia on 28 October and were defeated, the next day, in the battle of Camoruco, by the general José María Carreño. Although he was locked in the San Felipe Casttle, managed to escape and restart incursions into Tucacas, Aroa and San Felipe. Although the rebellion was put in the rest of the country, Carujo kept from Puerto Cabello, guerrilla activities in the area of Carabobo coast. Finally, wounded and captured at the Battle of Paso Real, near Puerto Cabello (12/25/1835), was tried and sentenced to death (27.1.1836) but the sentence was not fulfilled and who died in prison in Valencia, as a result of injuries sustained during the development of what would be his last fight.^[1]

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