It was created by the “Democratic Dictator” General Reyes, with Atlntico and Caldas among others. It had ve years of existence and its capital was San Gil. The first governor was Dr. Luis Felipe Uribe Toledo, the last one was General Manuel Maria Valdivieso. It lacked a promoter to be a department today.
The Departments of Galn, Atlntico, Tundama and Caldas were one of the most fortunate realizations of the General-President Rafael Reyes during the fth year of his administration. It constituted a wide but premature territorial and jurisdictional division of the country. In virtue of such modality, Reyes created by means of the Law 17 of April 11, 1905, the Department of Galn. It assigned, as Capital, the City of San Gil, center of the Comunero Movement of the glorious martyr Jose Antonio Galn. The Department had ve years of existence. It incorporated the Provinces of San Gil, Charal, Socorro, Velez and Zapatoca in the present Department of Santander next to the Chicamocha River. It started its legal and administrative life on June 15, 1905. Its first governor was Doctor Felipe Uribe Toledo who strictly embraced the political postulated concord constantly preconized by President Reyes. He did a Departmental Government “Tolerant, benevolent, honest which included collaborators, men of all political parties”.
Juan Francisco Mantilla, an upright and accommodating citizen, succeeded Doctor Uribe Toledo in the governorship. General Reyes afrmed:”He was one of the best interpreters of the National Reconstruction Work”. He started his government on March 26, 1906 and ended it in 1909, the year General Manuel Maria Valdivieso succeeded on September 14. He reigned the destinies of the ephemeral department until May 1, 1910. Then, the institution was eliminated due to the new concepts and centralist spirit in the administration of the public national destinies. Again, at the present moment, the plausible and “Highly constitutional” idea of creating the department has started to be agitated. The presumptive territory has been gathering the prerequisites which the Fundamental Charter demands. Its erection would improve and favor, notably, the interest of the people that once integrated the Department of Galn erected and consecrated by the “Democratic Dictator” in honor of the Comunero Father of the Country Jose Antonio Galn. To this department it lacks a leader contaminated with “ Acute Departmentalitis”. In the already cited book (57), the Department of Galn is described in the letter G: “Galan. Department. One of the fteen in which the Republic is divided for its political and electoral administration according to the Legislative Decree 457 of May 16, 1905. It takes its name from the famous Comunero Jose Antonio Galn. Its capital is San Gil. It forms its sole electoral circumscription with seat in San Gil. It is made up of the Provinces of Surez, capital Zapatoca Guanent, capital San Gil Socorro, capital of the same name Charal, capital of the same name and Velez, capital Velez all belonged to Santander with a population of 225,585 inhabitants. It is a Judicial District composed of the Circuits of Charal, Socorro, Velez and Zapatoca, and the Circuits of Notary and Registry of Charal, Onzaga, San Gil, Socorro, Oiba, Suaita, Puente Nacional, Velez and Zapatoca. In each there is a Notary and a Registrar, with exception of Velez, Socorro and San Gil where there are two notaries”. (Decree 1191, October, 1905)
And to complete the story of the birth and death of the institutional fossil, I insert, next, the text of the Law and the Legislative Decrees (58) dispatched by General Rafael Reyes, by which, the Department of Galn was created. Law 17 of 1905 (11 of April) on the Territorial Division states: “The Constituent and Legislative National Assembly of Colombia Decrees: Article 1 To create the Department of Galn in the South of Santander composed of the Provinces of Guanent, Galn, Socorro, Charal and Velez with the limits they have today.
Paragraph: The capital of this Department will be the City of San Gil. Article 2. The Department of Santander will be composed of the Provinces of Cucuta, Garcia Rovira, Pamplona, Soto and Ocantildea, plus the part of the Province South of the Department of Magdalena comprising the municipalities of Rio de Oro, Gonzlez, Aguachica and Gloria separated from the rest of the Province by the Colorada Brook near and south of Tamalameque River from its source to the mouth of the Magdalena River.
Paragraph: The capital of this Department will be the City of Bucaramanga. Article 3 creates the Department of Caldas. Article 8 creates the Department of Atlntico. Article 11 erects the City of Bogot in the Capital District (for the first time). Given in Bogot April 10, 1905. The President of the Congress (Signed) Enrique Restrepo Garcia. The Secretary (Signed) Luis Felipe Angulo. Executive Power. Bogot, April 11, 1905. Publish and Execute. R. Reyes. Minister of Government Bonifacio Velez”.