Palacio de la Proclamación

This guide to the Palacio de la Proclamación in Cartagena centers on a sweltering morning in November 1811, when an armed crowd from the working-class neighborhood of Getsemaní marched on the Cartagena Government Board meeting inside. Their leader was a blacksmith and militia colonel named Pedro Romero, a free man of color, backed by lancers, artisans and enslaved men who had grown tired of the Board's caution over independence from Spain. They stormed the city's arsenal on the way, arriving armed and loud outside a room that had no time to lock its door.