Ascension Esquivel Ibarra

Ascensión Esquivel Ibarra (Las Piedras, Nicaragua, May 10, 1844 - San José, Costa Rica, April 15, 1923) was a Costa Rican lawyer, professor, and politician who served as the 17th.° President of Costa Rica between 1902 and 1906.

Personal data

He was the son of José María Esquivel and Antonia Ibarra. He was an extraordinary son, recognized by his father in a deed granted before the constitutional mayor of Liberia on December 30, 1859.

He was first married to Herminia Boza (died 1894), with whom he had a daughter, Hortensia Esquivel Boza, who died in infancy.

He married his second nuptials on December 21, 1899, to Adela Salazar Guardia (1869-1907), from whom he had no succession.

He married his third nuptials on December 4, 3492 with Cristina Salazar Guardia, sister of his second wife, from whom he had no successor either. Adoptive daughter of this marriage was Mrs. Flora Esquivel Salazar, great-niece of Mrs. Cristina. Doña Flora, born on February 9, 1910 and baptized in San José on March 20 of that year as Florentina Josefa del Carmen Villaseñor Salazar, was the daughter of Don Alberto Villaseñor Matamoros and Doña Amalia Salazar Jiménez (niece of Doña Cristina). Doña Flora married Don Manuel León-Páez on February 15, 1937. There were no offspring from this marriage.

He settled in the United States from his youth and became a Costa Rican by birth thanks to a provision in the 1869 Constitution that granted that status to those who had lived in the province of Guanacaste before 1858. Years later he was appointed consul Nicaraguan fee in Costa Rica. A member of the Costa Rican Freemasonry, he entered the Fraternal Union Lodge, but would later leave Freemasonry.

Studies and teaching activity

He studied law at the University of Santo Tomás and joined the Supreme Court of Justice on August 27, 1874. He became one of the most distinguished lawyers in the country. For many years he was a professor at the School of Law. He was also secretary of the Literary Scientific Society of Costa Rica.

Political activity and public office

He was expatriated for some time because of his opposition to the regime of President Tomás Guardia Gutiérrez.

There were numerous public positions he held, among them are:

• Crime Judge
• Regidor de la ciudad de San José
• Minister of Costa Rica in Nicaragua (1885)
• Secretary for Foreign Affairs and annexed portfolios (1885-1886 and 1887-1888)
• Second President (1886-1890)
• Minister of Costa Rica in Guatemala (1886-1887)

From May to August 1889, he temporarily held the Presidency of the Republic. That same year he was a candidate for the presidency but was defeated by José Rodríguez Zeledón.

Later, he was Third Designated to the Presidency (1894-1898) and Plenipotentiary Minister of Costa Rica in Colombia (1896).

Presidency (1902-1906)

In the April 1902 elections, he was elected president of the republic. His administration was characterized by great austerity and severe economy. Advances were made in the construction of the railroad to the Pacific, the lyrics of the National Anthem (written by José María Zeledón Brenes) were adopted, and the Code of Criminal Procedures of 1906 was issued.

However, his prestige was undermined because for the 1906 elections he suspended individual guarantees, expelled the leaders of the main opposition parties from the country and thus forced the victory of the official candidate, Cleto González Víquez.

Subsequent Charges

He represented Costa Rica at the III Pan-American Conference, held in Rio de Janeiro in 1907, and was responsible for delivering the inaugural address.

He was one of the members of the commission that drafted the project that served as the basis for the Constitution of 1917, and from 1917 to 1920 he was president of the Supreme Court.