The headquarters for Hermanos Reyes was located on the Upper Putumayo River, at place named La Sofia which was the beginning of a section accessible by steamboats.

[4] After his success in diverse and lengthy explorations, settling towns and discovering unknown rivers throughout the Amazon rainforest of Brazil, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia, the enterprise went into a decline in 1884: several ships sank down, workforce was diminished due to diseases and migration of personnel.

[8] In 1885, after his enterprise’s fall down, 35-year-old Reyes joined the army to battle in the Civil War of 1884-85, and due to his courage and skill in warfare he was promoted to General, shortly after.

Right in the middle of the war, president Rafael Nuñez gave him the responsibility of leading operations to conquer back Panama as part of the Colombian territory; the mission was originally under command of the general of the division, Gral.

When the expedition arrived in Panamá, they reestablished the civil and military authority, and a few days later all U.S.A. force presence left the isthmus.

After the Panamanian rebel Azpurría surrendered before them, Reyes presided over a spoken council of war which resulted in the execution of Antoine Petricelli from Haiti and the Jamaican George Davis, a.k.a.

On November 11th 1885, when the National Constituent Assembly was established, Reyes obtained a seat, however, his participation in the Magna Carta was somehow unfortunate, due to the fact that Miguel Antonio Caro opposed most of his motions.

In 1888 he returned to his personal activities and purchased the Andorra ranch, nearby Tocaima, where agriculture gave him back his previously lost wealth.

In 1904, José Manuel Marroquín president gave him the task to put together an army of one hundred thousand volunteers to battle and win back Panamá.

Due to intelligence information arriving to Bogota regarding the movement and arrangement of new U.S.A. battleships in the Pacific and the Caribbean, Colombia’s approach moved away from belligerence to a more diplomatic manner of doing things; the fact that the Mayflower, the North American flagship of the Atlantic and other ten ships were guarding both oceans to impede any Colombian troops to disembark and protect the rebellion of the isthmus, made things lean towards diplomacy and avert going to war against the U.S.A. Colombian Troops were allowed to disembark, thanks to Secretary of State, John M. Hay who authorized them to set foot at Colón, but they were not allowed to be part of the Provisional Government Board to negotiate the devolution of the isthmus; from there, they parted to Washington.

This action was supported by President Theodore Roosevelt, who had expressed interest in building an interoceanic canal in this strategic region.

[11] In the 1904 presidential race, which did not have any Liberal candidates, Reyes ran against another conservator; General Joaquín Fernando Vélez, to whom he would later beat for a narrow difference.

With the enormous prestige that Reyes was enjoying after his successful military campaign of 1895 in the North, it seemed obvious that we would be nominated by his party to run for president in 1900.

As a result of this treaty, Reyes obtained substantial foreign aid and secured significant international loans to finance his plans of public works and infrastructure.

In part, the treaty had a provision by which the United States would pay substantial monetary funds in compensation and restitution to Colombia for the loss of the Panamanian territory.

[17] Finally, to avoid a war between supporters and opponents secretly handed over the presidency to the general Jorge Holguín Mallarino on 9 June 1909 and once in Santa Marta, went as a passenger in the Manistí ship bound for Europe.