"All went well for a while, especially after the prompt suppression of a counter-revolution, until Castro’s sympathies with the Colombian Liberals in the field began to tell on his foreign policy. Uribe-Uribe had been badly beaten in Colombia. He was made welcome by Castro in Venezuela, and was intrusted with the command of a division on the Colombian frontier. The command was recruited from Colombians across the border. At the same time, Castro arbitrarily stopped all navigation on the Zulia and Catacumbo rivers, running from Colombian Cordillera to the Lake of Maracaibo, in Venezuela. This was a death-blow to the coffee industry of the Colombian state of Santander, which has no other outlet to the sea. Cúcuta was ruined. A German house failed for half a million dollars, an American hacienda lost $200,000, and other foreign merchants suffered in proportion. All commerce in Cúcuta and Maracaibo coffee almost came to a standstill. Then it was that the government forces in Santander, to bring relief to the stricken district, tried to open the closed rivers by a sudden armed invasion into that region. For the sake of appearances, they were led by Ranjel Garbiras, a Venezuelan revolutionist. They made for the prosperous town of San Cristobal, but Uribe-Uribe had managed to gather his corps of insurgents, and beat off the attack in a three days’ battle. Some two thousand men fell on both sides. Uribe-Uribe promptly prepared a counter invasion. He was aided in this by Castro, who practically put all Venezuelan forces in the Cordillera at his disposal. "President Castro, who was furious at so overt an act of war on the part of his old enemies, the Colombian Clericals, furthermore sent another expedition across the Goajira desert to aid his Colombian insurgent friends in that peninsula to take the Colombian port of Rio Hacha. Venezuelan gunboats appeared before Rio Hacha to do their part in the capture. Unfortunately for the Liberal cause, the Venezuelan army in the Goajira was taken unawares while on the march, and was all but annihilated. The gunboats chose to retire without firing a shot. Castro never recovered from this reverse. The expenses of his various armed expeditions ate up all his ready finances. When he could no longer maintain Uribe-Uribe’s troops, Uribe cut loose and recrossed the border, to join forces with other insurgent leaders in the interior of Colombia. Uribe’s cousin proceeded to Panama, and the civil war there broke out with fresh vigor. By their recent brilliant stroke in the harbor of Panama, the Colombian Liberals have won the command of the sea on the Pacific side. To assist them in doing the same on the Atlantic side, Castro has now supplied them with a torpedo-boat and a small gunboat." {110}