Colombia’s department of Boyaca declaring war on Belgium remains, to this day, a little-known fact. Although there are no official documents to definitely validate it historically, there is evidence that in 1867, Colombian military leader and politician Jose de los Santos Gutierrez (1820-1872) sent a letter to the kingdom of Belgium in which the then province of Boyacá–one of the seven that made up what is now Colombia–declared war on the country.
The reasons weren’t political or economic, it was a matter of love–or more accurately, heartbreak.
Boyaca’s war declaration on Belgium: A story of unrequited love
José de los Santos Gutiérrez born in the town of El Cocuy (Boyaca), was a prominent liberal politician and, as a soldier, fought in several of Colombia’s civil wars.
At a young age, he was selected to be part of a group of Colombians sent to study law at the University of Leuven (Belgium). It was there that Gutierrez met Josefina Harboot, the love of his life.
Legend has it that the relationship never blossomed because the young woman’s parents opposed the union–and also because she never fully returned Gutierrez’s affections.
Undeterred, the young lawyer began planning a wedding that would never take place. The bride’s parents refused to let their daughter travel over 8,000 kilometers to Boyaca, a remote region tucked away in mountains of South America-a place they knew little or nothing about.
Against his wishes, Gutierrez had to return to Colombia without his beloved–but with the firm conviction that such an offense would not go unanswered.
This was the turning point–when the resentment born from unrequited love sparked in the politician the idea of channeling his frustration into the political sphere, igniting tension with Belgium.
The letter that never reached its destination
At the time, the country was known as the “United States of Colombia” and divided into nine states, including the State of Boyaca, with Gutierrez serving as its president in 1863.
Years passed after his return from Europe, but it seems his heart never left. In 1867, with memories of Josefina and her disapproving parents still vivid in his mind–and likely harboring a deep resentment he had carried for years–he reportedly decided to send a letter to Brussels in which the state of Boyacá declared war on the Kingdom of Belgium.
However, due to the poor state of mail transportation in Colombia at the time, the letter never reached its destination, and the war never officially began. That’s why few Colombians–even those from Boyacá–and even fewer Belgians, are aware of the conflict they were technically involved in for nearly 121 years.
According to Hernan Olano, a Colombian lawyer and historian, “what happened in this episode, which is not officially documented, truly reflects the consequences of provincial governments and the anarchic feudalism that characterized 19th-century Colombia,” he explained to the EFE news agency.
In the end, historical accounts confirm that a symbolic armistice was eventually signed–an act that has since gone down in history as nothing more than a story reminiscent of Romeo and Juliet.
Fortunately, it was a war born of heartbreak that never claimed a single life, just the feelings of a Colombian man.