The Autumn of the Patriarch

The narrator opens again on the mysterious body. Remembering a memoir written by Ambassador Palmerston, now banned, the narrator describes the advanced age of the General: so old that he’d lost hearing and with a house in utter decay and disarray, covered in animal feces and paper. The narrator then compares this image of decrepitude to the many phases of the general during his regime; from bantering with the townspeople one on one to changing the time of day at will; moving from a believer in omens and dreams to a murderer who kills all fortune tellers and smashes incantations that might bring upon his death, believing that he’ll evade death and be “master” of power.

In one brutish display, the narrator (who becomes the woman whom the General pursues) recounts a time when the General enters the home of a newly wedded couple, rapes Francisca Linero, and murders her husband Poncio Daz to get rid of someone who would have been “a mortal enemy for the rest of his life” (91). These instances aren’t enough to remedy the General’s fear, however. He wasn’t powerful enough to see beyond Manuela’s trick and is still afraid to die—even when he’s already been told of the manner of his death.

A hurricane comes to the city upon which the General pins his anxiety. He orders the city—from the animals to the houses—to be bolted down. Of course, this is ineffective, and the city suffers the effects of the hurricane. Yet in the end, even though the General can hardly address the population with words of comfort—and doesn’t—they applaud his ability to survive the hurricane and rest in the confidence that he will care for them. Care for them he does, and the city is reconstructed with the help of foreign aid, none of which comes for free.

During reconstruction, a lottery takes place which the General always wins. An elaborate governmental scam uses children from the city who are trained to pick billiard balls with the winning numbers which have been kept on ice for days so that they’re colder than the rest. However, once the lottery is finished, the children must be detained so that the scam isn’t revealed. Eventually, there are thousands of children imprisoned in the palace dungeons. An aide mentions this problem, which is becoming too difficult to contain, as there are no more children in the village to select and no more room to imprison them even if there were.

Rumors begin to spread of a mass kidnapping. To clear the dungeons and calm the social upset, the General has the children deported to uninhabited land in the region. Eventually, because he has no idea how to solve the problem, he orders them to be placed on a barge and bombed and drowned once they are out to sea. The orders are carried out.

Soon after, there is another revolt against the General. The narrator reflects on the many times that the General has had to root out rebels from his military and personnel. The resurrectionists bomb the palace and slaughter each other. A rebel dressed as someone with leprosy attempts to assassinate the General and pulls a gun on him. The General dares him to pull the trigger. The assassin hesitates; the General attacks but does not disarm him, and the conflict ends with the assailant shooting himself so that he cannot be taken. The General orders his dismembered parts of his body to be displayed around the city. The General, seeking desperately to uncover who armed his attacker, sees in an omen that General Rodrigo de Aguilar has been against him since the start: He “had succeeded in establishing another system of power within the power as widespread and fruitful” as the General’s (115). The General discovers that, through gaining the utmost confidence from him, General Aguilar had been signing papers and building relationships on the General's behalf without his knowledge and conspired to have the General committed to an asylum three days hence, during the annual banquet honoring the Holy Guardian Angel.

The General holds the banquet and asks his personal guard to sit and enjoy appetizers and drinks while they wait for General Rodrigo de Aguilar to give the toast. They wait until the stroke of midnight, at which point General Rodrigo is brought in on a silver platter, marinated and decorated with his medals and a garnish. The General orders his body to be carved and served to his guests and tells them to begin eating.