Herbert Wolcott Bowen

A coalition of regional caudillos, headed by the wealthy banker Manuel Antonio Matos and allied with transnational corporations, tried to overthrow President Cipriano Castro.

On December 17, 1902, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Rafael Lopez Baralt requested that Bowen serve as arbitrator in the dispute over the bombardment of Fort San Carlos.

The German Foreign Office claimed the attempted entry to Maracaibo was motivated by a desire to cut off supply lines from neighboring Colombia.

[citation needed] After the Fort San Carlos incident and increasingly negative British and American press reactions to the Germans' conduct, President Roosevelt called for international arbitration in Washington.

Roosevelt also informed the German Ambassador that Admiral George Dewey had orders to be ready the Caribbean fleet to sail from Puerto Rico to Venezuela at an hour's notice.

[clarification needed] This resolution was an early application of the Roosevelt Corollary, Big Stick policy, and dollar diplomacy in Latin America.

[4] Bowen married Augusta Floyd Vingut on 26 February 1895 at a high society wedding in New York performed by Roman Catholic archbishop Michael Corrigan.