El Independiente (Colombian newspaper)

As well as Eduardo Santos did when he founded Intermedio to replace El Tiempo, Gabriel Cano thought that he could not leave his employees without a job, whereas the newspaper's machinery just caused losses by being out of business. Through some acquaintances and friends, he tried several times to get required authorizations to print a new publication under another title. The names of La Idea,^[4] La Consigna and La Correspondencia were rejected, among other reasons, because they were the same titles that Fidel Cano Gutiérrez had chosen to keep printing newspapers in the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century whenever the governments of the so-called "Regeneration" and the Colombian Conservative Party hegemony frequently closed down El Espectador.^[6]

Finally, Darío Bautista and José Salgar obtained the authorization to print El Independiente.^[7] The first edition circulated on February 20, 1956,^[8][4] directed by Alberto Lleras Camargo.^[6] However, since Lleras was simultaneously the leader of Liberal Party, many of the actions against the regime were planned from the offices of El Independiente, and some handbill regarded as subversive by the government was linked to the activity of the newspaper. Lleras was accused of being an accomplice of such clandestine maneuvers. He was not allowed to defend himself, and the new daily was closed on April 15, 1956, less than two months after being founded.^[9]

In October 1956, during the General Assembly of the Inter American Press Association held in Havana, Cuba, several journalists and continental political celebrities suggested Gabriel Cano to restart the publication of El Espectador. Back in Colombia, Alberto Lleras Camargo and Alfonso López Michelsen also asked Cano to do it. But he refused to accept these suggestions, saying that his daily would not reappear until when his defense editorial column could be published "without the most minimum cut, although it was within a month, within a year, or within a century". Anyway, he gave the chance of printing El Independiente or any other newspaper that was in accordance with the ideals of El Espectador.^[6]

El Independiente resumed its issuing on February 2, 1957, directed by Guillermo Cano Isaza (son of Gabriel Cano).^[6] One month later, on March 4, the Administrative Court of Cundinamarca derogated the fine imposed on El Espectador and ordered the refund of the paid money.^[4] The lawsuit that succeeded was set up by Carlos Lleras Restrepo, lawyer of the company.^[6] The censorship kept merciless. According to Guillermo Cano, there were two completely different newspapers every day: "The one that was read the three or four censors, and another which was printed and that was in the hands of thousands of people. The first one was good, complete and informative. The second one was elaborated in a hurry, very varied and amusing, with many curiosities and little information, with many beauty queens in swimsuit, but no current opinions".^[10]

Since May 5, 1957, the country was in a national strike. The opposition newspapers, banks, factories, stores, schools, clubs, cinemas and theaters ceased their activities.^[6] Rojas Pinilla resigned on May 10 and left the government in charge of a Military Junta. In the extra edition that El Independiente issued that day, the editorial column announced its full support to the agreement signed between Alberto Lleras Camargo and Laureano Gómez that helped to end the dictatorship, and that resulted in the return of democracy through a mechanism of alternation in Presidency and equal distribution of the public offices between liberals and conservatives. This agreement was known as the National Front.^[6]

"There is only one thing we can and we want to say, and it is that we are willing to give our modest but patriotic contribution to any resolutions that, now or later, be taken by the directives of the Liberal and Conservative parties, whose historic agreement signed in March we supported timely, loyally and decidedly".

However, in the same extra edition, it was made clear that El Espectador would only return when democratic institutions were fully and definitively restored.^[6] And this lasted a long time to be fulfilled. The plebiscite that ratified the validity of the pact between Liberals and Conservatives took place on December 1, 1957.^[11] The Congress elections were on March 16, 1958.^[12] And the presidential elections were held on May 4, 1958.^[13]

With democracy fully restored, El Independiente published its final number on May 31, 1958. The next day, June 1, El Espectador circulated again,^[14] with a morning edition directed by Gabriel Cano and other one in the afternoon, led by Guillermo Cano.^[15]