Long--and Quiet--War Finally Over
BRUSSELS — Belgium and the Colombian province of Boyaca have formally ended a war declared by a lovesick general 121 years ago, with nary a bullet fired.
Gen. Jose Santos Guttierez went home from studies at the Belgian university of Louvain with a broken heart after a local girl rejected his love.
Seeking vengeance on her country, he declared war on Belgium in 1867 as soon as he became ruler of then-independent Boyaca.
On Sunday, Belgium’s ambassador to Colombia, Willy Stevens, signed a peace treaty in the province’s capital, Tunja, 85 miles north of Bogota.
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