For a few weeks in 1849, Nieto oversaw Cartagena’s Provincial Government, stepping in for the then Governor José María Obando who fell ill. In July 1851, Nieto officially filled the position.
During the time in which Nieto governed, Colombia was held together as a confederation of states. On July 3, 1860, he decided to break ranks and decree that the state of Bolívar would separate from the New Granada Union.
The separation was a political move, allowing Nieto to ally himself with General Tomás Cipriano of Mosquera, who had risen up in the south of the country against the conservative and centralist government of Mariano Ospina Rodríguez. In November of 1860, Nieto Gil took over the government of northern Colombia by force with the purpose of uniting these territories and the ones that Mosquera was conquering from the south.
An unexpected opportunity
It was expected that Mosquera would eventually arrive in Bogotá and declare himself President, but when that didn’t happen, Nieto Gil decided to step in. By decree, he filled the power vacuum and became president on Jan. 25, 1861.
In the first article of his decree, Nieto states: “I declare, as of today, in exercise of the executive power of the United States of New Granada, the title of President of the Union, and in whose power I trust and will remain, until there is official endorsement in the executive power of this position for Tomás Cipriano de Mosquera.”
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By the same decree, Nieto Gil set the capital of the country in Cartagena and during a “lavish ceremony received the Presidential sash,” writes journalist and historian Gabriel Cabrera in an essay on Nieto Gil published in the Spanish newspaper El País, Aug. 23, 1998 under the title: A President Erased from History.
Cabrera considers in his article that, most likely, “Mosquera was the first person who wanted to ignore Nieto’s presidency.”
The painting Fals Borda found in the dungeons of the Palace of the Inquisition was sent to Bogotá and restored by Colombia’s Cultural Institute, Colcultura. Two years later it returned to the city and hangs today in Cartagena’s Museo Historico as the true portrait of President Nieto Gil.
Still excluded from history
However, it still doesn’t seem to grab the attention of visitors. Despite its restoration, it seems to correspond more to the ‘whitened’ Parisian version than the black leader who was painted before he became President, and who has been systematically denied his place in history.
Before his death, Fals Borda told El Nuevo Herald that he had witnessed a painting of Nieto Gil being incorporated into a gallery of Colombian presidents at Bogotá’s Banco de la República, with the help of its former director, Miguel Urrutia.
It seemed to be the start of a late, yet warranted recognition of Nieto, but an investigation by El Nuevo Herald couldn’t find any evidence of this gallery.
The head of the Banco de la República’s Educational Services and Communications department, Sofía Restrepo Rincón, told the Miami newspaper that the only representations of Colombian Presidents in existence at the institution are some “colored photographic miniatures with some of the portraits of presidents, but not all.” The collection “is being safeguarded in order to become complete and pass in the future to the Rare Books and Manuscripts Room of the Luis Angel Arango Library for consultation and research by the general public.”
Interestingly, Restrepo notes that, “Juan José Nieto, president in 1861, is in the colorized photographic collection.” This nonetheless, does not fully incorporate Nieto into the official history of the country, as he continues to be absent in the Presidential Portrait Gallery.
