Cables, Crises, and the Press: The Geopolitics of the New Information System in the Americas, 1866-1903

3: Raising False Hopes: International Communications and International Crises in Latin America, 1866–1881

51 chapTer Three Raising False Hopes International Communications and International Crises in Latin America, 1866–1881 The youNg Telegrapher STood with his back to the electric key as he faced the Spanish soldiers who guarded the cable office. With his hand concealed behind his back, he quietly tapped out his message of distress: “There’s the devil to pay in Santiago. They’re butchering men of all nations.” This startling alert would have traveled over the submarine cable from the south coast of Cuba to the British colony of Jamaica. The butchery in Cuba had taken the lives of fifty-three people from the cargo vessel Virginius and another fifty lives hung in the balance. This electric communication alerted the British gunboat Niobe, which reached the port of Santiago in time to save the remainder of the crew and passengers from the clutches of the deranged Spanish general Juan Burriel. This story of the heroic young telegrapher is apocryphal. There is no solid historical documentation to support it. However, the existence of this concocted version of events among the English-speaking residents of Santiago in 1885—some twelve years after the executions—provides an indication of the capacity of the telegraph and its potential for rapid communication over large distances to generate a kind of popular iconography. An unnamed reporter for the New York Times recorded this story when he visited the Spanish colonial city of Santiago, where the memory of the horrific events remained strong. In fact, telegraphic communications had saved the lives of fifty captives. The main embellishments were the “behind the back” skills and personal audacity of the operator, along with the presence of the Spanish soldiers.1 52 chapter three Four thousand miles to the south and nineteen years earlier, Adolfo Alsina, governor of Buenos Aires province, hailed the opening of the cable connection between his capital city and Montevideo, Uruguay. On November 29, 1866, Governor Alsina spoke to banquet hosting guests from business and government, who joined to celebrate the arrival of cable technology to their city. Alsina welcomed the telegraph as a device with the power to conquer both distance and time. His remarks coincided with similar comments being made by Governor Venancio Flores in Montevideo in front of another festive gathering. The cable lines of River Plate Telegraph carried the exchange of reciprocal toasts beneath the Río de la Plata. Business and civic leaders on both sides of the estuary were confident that a new day had dawned in international relations.2 The international telegraph network introduced a new means of communication through submerged cables in the 1860s and 1870s that tied together Latin America, the United States, and Europe. There was widespread confidence in the potential of fast-moving messages to improve the international environment for diplomacy and business by resolving disputes and promoting good will across national boundaries. Studies of international crises in Latin America from the end of the Civil War in the United States into the 1880s have examined their diplomatic, political, and economic dimensions in depth.3 A few scholars have given serious attention to the role of telegraphic communications in these crises. Richard Bradford and Jay Sexton have examined the Virginius affair, and Andres Cisneros and Carlos Escudé have studied the so-called “wire treaty” between Argentina and Chile. All take into account the role of international telegraphy.4 Comprehensive in their detail on particular events, they do not look into the functioning of the communications network as a whole. The main purposes of this chapter are to discuss the operation of this network and to evaluate its use by diplomats, politicians, naval officers, business leaders, and journalists in three crises that occurred between 1873 and 1881. What role did international telegraphy play in the international power structure of this era? Did the new system of communications help to establish stability and peace? The findings of Bradford, Cisneros, and Escudé indicate that governments made good use of the telegraph in the settlement of international crises. A broader, more comprehensive study of the functioning of the new communications system, however, may lead to other conclusions. It is on the margins and beneath the surface of these crises that the potential for the new system to generate false impressions, tension, and disruption became evident. 53 Raising False Hopes The Virginius affair Cuba’s abortive revolution for independence (1868–1878) spawned a crisis that tested not only...