Intermedio (Colombian newspaper)

In order not to leave his employees without a job and avoid bankruptcy, Eduardo Santos created the "Casa Editorial El Tiempo" by redistributing shares among some members of the Santos family, Roberto García-Peña, Abdón Espinosa Valderrama, and other people of his inner circle of friends and collaborators.^[8][2] After having fulfilled the legal requirements, Intermedio was first published on February 21, 1956. The editor in charge was Enrique Santos Montejo "Calibán", brother of Eduardo Santos.^[9]

Intermedio used the same typeface in its masthead as used by El Tiempo, the layout was identical, and the sections and columns were the same ones that usually appeared in El Tiempo.^[5] Even street sellers of newspapers kept announcing it as El Tiempo, although that was not its name.^[9] What is more, the name of Intermedio was purposely chosen to mean that the situation was something temporary, short-lived, like the interlude of a theater play, and that the dictatorship of Rojas, sooner rather than later was going to fall.^[10] To emphasize that idea, the front page of the first edition included a cartoon by Hernando Turriago "Chapete",^[11] in which a very old actor standing on stage, with an hourglass and a scythe in his hands, greets the spectators by saying: "Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. And now, some moments of Interlude". However, in that first edition of twelve pages, Intermedio reluctantly had to publish a press release ordered by the regime in which ratified that the death of the Correas (what triggered the closure of El Tiempo), had been caused by an accident.^[2]

The relationship between the government and the newspaper was ambivalent. On the one hand, in April 1956, Rojas suggested that the Santos brothers reopen El Tiempo, but Eduardo Santos rejected the proposal and assured him that his newspaper would not return as long as the dictatorship existed.^[4] From then on, censorship became a little more flexible, but on the other hand, the import of paper and other supplies needed for printing were blocked by bureaucratic paperwork.^[2][12]

While Rojas's de facto regime was collapsing, two deadly enemies of previous decades, the leaders of Liberal and Conservative parties, Alberto Lleras Camargo and Laureano Gómez, respectively, were creating a strategy to overthrow the dictatorship. Thus, by the Agreement of Benidorm, on July 24, 1956,^[13] and the "Agreement of March" (from 1957),^[14] they set the basis of what would later be known as the National Front, which consisted of the democratic alternation in the Presidency of the two traditional parties and the equal distribution of bureaucratic offices.^[15]

The political situation reached a critical point when a national strike was organized by most sectors of the Colombian society on May 5, 1957. Mass media, banking, industry, commerce, transport and other groups of the economy ceased their activities.^[16] Rojas Pinilla announced his resignation, designated as a replacement a Military Junta and escaped from the country on May 10, 1957. That same day Intermedio and its colleague El Independiente (issued as a substitute of El Espectador) released extraordinary editions, with the breaking news on the end of the dictatorship.

Thousands of people filled up the streets of Colombia to celebrate the falling of the dictator. In Bogotá, a group of them went to the building of El Tiempo. The most enthusiastic ones climbed up the balconies to the fourth floor and tore off the Intermedio banner which had temporary covered the El Tiempo sign.^[17] In the May 11 edition, Intermedio announced that El Tiempo would circulate again when Eduardo Santos returned from his exile in France and there would be proper conditions to restart issuing.^[18] Those proper conditions were finally given by the Resolution 0199 of June 4, 1957, which rescinded the closure order against El Tiempo proclaimed in August 1955.^[17]

The last edition of Intermedio (number 458) was issued on June 7, 1957. This was the final paragraph of the editorial column:^[19]

"We are not writing a farewell. Tomorrow, we will resume the battle from another trench, now protected by more benevolent signs. We have had a prolific interval, never static, permanently illuminated by a deep faith in the invincible spiritual values of our homeland. We are going forward, towards that new republic reborn from chaos, pain and hopeless. The interlude has ended. The front curtain will rise".

As a tribute, the next day on June 8, 1957, when El Tiempo restarted, a new cartoon of "Chapete" was published on the front page. It was the sequel to the one published in the first number of Intermedio. Now it showed the same old actor standing on stage, with an hourglass and a scythe in his hands and a pair of broken chains lying down on the floor. The old man greets the spectators with a quote from Fray Luis de León: "As we were saying yesterday ..."^[20]

Besides, "Caliban" summarized in his column "Danza de las Horas", which had been the performance of Intermedio through the difficult conditions which it had to deal with, and once finished its mission, welcomed the return of El Tiempo:^[21]

"Intermedio comes to an end. And, as in the ancient dramas, it is just pending for the actors to ask the people for an applause, which is the only reward that we expect. And El Tiempo goes on, although, in fact, it never stopped. The street sellers boys refused to ratify the closure of El Tiempo, and with that old battle name they announced it in avenues and squares. In the printing workshops, the publishing department and the management – with very few exceptions – the same personnel of El Tiempo worked always with bravery and without selfishness. The ideals were not modified even in one line. The compass always marked the same north."