Most Read · Tuesday, November 3, 1903
Colombian Senate Wonders If It Should Have Read That Treaty Again
Members of Colombia's senate, who in August rejected the Hay-Herrán Treaty with the United States over money and sovereignty concerns, gathered this week to consider whether they had perhaps been a bit hasty. By the time they agreed to reconsider, the province in question had left.
Colombia's objections were not unreasonable: the treaty would have handed Washington long-term control of a strip of its territory. Unfortunately, the reasonable thing and the thing with gunboats are not always the same thing. Bogotá will spend years seeking compensation, and the U.S. will eventually pay it $25 million.
Satire. For what actually happened, see the “What really happened” box in the full issue.