Jose Francisco Barrundia y Cepeda

José Francisco Barrundia y Cepeda (Nueva Guatemala de la Asunción, May 12, 1787 – New York, August 4, 1854) was a politician, president of the Federal Republic of Central America and writer. Guatemalan.

Biography

Portrait of Teresa Cepeda Chamorro de Barrundia, mother of Barrundia and Cepeda.

Barrundia was the son of Martín Barrundia Iparraguirre and Doña Teresa Cepeda Chamorro. He married Antonia Flores, with whom they had a son. He did his first studies at the Tridentino College and Seminary of Our Lady of the Assumption, from which he graduated in 1802. Barrundia chose a military career and began as a lieutenant in the fixed battalion. From a very young age, his restless character and his well-to-do Creole condition made him a participant in liberal ideas prone to independence.

Barrundia was in charge of the variety section of El Editor Constitucional, directed by Dr. Pedro Molina Mazariegos, in which he published several writings in which he advocated political liberation, progress of the university and the well-being of the indigenous people.

On the night of September 14, informed of the call by Captain General Gabino Gaínza to discuss the issue of independence, Molina and Barrundia -along with other Guatemalan Creoles- visited the popular neighborhoods of the city to invite the people to go the next day to the main square.

Presidency of the Federal Republic of Central America

José Francisco Barrundia was a lieutenant of the Regiment (formerly Battalion) Infantry Fijo de los Reales Ejércitos en la Capitanía General de Guatemala.

In 1829 he was called to the presidency of the Federal Republic of Central America. During his administration, anti-clerical ideas took precedence to combat the regular orders of the Catholic Church, main members of the Guatemalan conservative party, and elections were held in which Francisco Morazán Quesada, of whom he was a faithful supporter, triumphed.

Another important work of Barrundia was his initiative to adopt Livingston's codes -which he translated himself-, which caused so many problems to the government of Dr. Mariano Gálvez, due to the fact that they replaced the old penal laws of the colony, by the modern and revolutionary method of juries to which the Central American people were not accustomed. The codes were solemnly promulgated on January 1, 1837.

Fight against the government of Mariano Gálvez

Doctor Mariano Gálvez during his time as Head of the State of Guatemala
National Museum of History of Guatemala

In 1837 Rafael Carrera began the armed struggle against the regime of Francisco Morazán, then president of the Federal Republic of Central America; He fought against the person who governed the State of Guatemala, a liberal like Francisco Morazán, Dr. José Mariano Gálvez. Carrera was the top leader of the insurgent forces, among which were numerous indigenous people; the reason why he had the support of the indigenous people was that on June 9, 1837, the State of Guatemala had reintroduced the indigenous tribute that had been suppressed since colonial times by the Cortes of Cádiz. The insurgents began the hostilities through a guerrilla war: attacking towns without giving them the opportunity to have encounters with government troops. At the same time, the idea of Gálvez's enemies was spreading, accusing him of poisoning river waters to spread cholera morbus to the population, something that only happened due to population growth and the low capacity of the sanitary structure of the city. This accusation favored Carrera's objectives, turning a large part of the population against Mariano Gálvez and the liberals in general.

Barrundia's intransigence in defending his personal ideas, his vehement character and arrogance even led him to agree with the enemies of his cause - such is the case of his alliance with Rafael Carrera to overthrow the liberal regime of the doctor Gálvez- or, even, carry out laws harmful to Central America, as happened with the approval of the decree of March 21, 1847 that proclaimed, by motion of Barrundia, the State of Guatemala, a sovereign nation, a free and independent republic, breaking Guatemala in this way the federal pact already almost non-existent, for the benefit of the conservative sector.

The struggle against the liberal government of Gálvez had taken on the overtones of a holy war, since it was the parish priests of the secular clergy -who had not been expelled from the country- who harangued the peasants to defend the rights of the holy religion and to fight the liberal atheists; Carrera himself had been educated by the parish priest of Mataquescuintla who had instructed him in the Catholic religion in the humiliations that it suffered under the power of the liberals. Another factor that influenced the revolt were the concessions that the liberal government of Francisco Morazán gave to the English -whom they called "heretics" because of their condition as Protestants; in Guatemala they had been given Belize and the Haciendo San Jerónimo in Salamá - which was the most expensive and profitable property that the liberals had seized from the Dominicans in 1829; the smuggling of English items from Belize had impoverished Guatemalan artisans, who joined Carrera's revolt. The priests announced to the natives that Carrera was their protective angel, who had descended from heaven to take revenge on heretics, liberals, and foreigners and to restore their ancient rule. They devised various tricks to make the Indians believe this illusion, which were announced as miracles. Among them, a letter was thrown from the roof of one of the churches, in the middle of a vast congregation of indigenous people. This letter supposedly came from the Virgin Mary, who commissioned Carrera to lead a revolt against the government.

To counter the violent attacks of the peasant guerrilla, the governor of the State of Guatemala Mariano Gálvez approved and later praised the use of the scorched earth policy against the uprising towns; this prompted several of his supporters to advise him to give up this tactic as it would only contribute to increasing the revolt. At the beginning of 1838, Barrundia y Cepeda, by then already the liberal leader of Guatemala, was disappointed in Gálvez's management for his atrocities, and managed to take Carrera to Guatemala City, to combat the Head of State. For that year, the situation in Guatemala was unsustainable: the economy was paralyzed due to the lack of security on the roads and it reached the point where the Liberals negotiated with Carrera to put an end to this confrontation even though it was inevitable. Gálvez leaves the exercise of power on January 31, 1838 before the "Ejército de los Pueblos" under the command of Rafael Carrera who began the penetration into Guatemala City with an army of between ten thousand and twelve thousand men, after the agreement reached by Carrera with Barrundia and Cepeda.

Carrera's victorious troops, shouting "Long live religion!" and "Away with foreign heretics!" and made up mainly of poorly armed peasants, they took Guatemala City and dedicated themselves to looting and destroying the buildings of the liberal government, including the Archbishop's Palace, where Gálvez resided and the house of the English presenter William Hall. the mob, Carrera asked the dean of the Cathedral, Antonio Larrazábal, to open the doors of the building, which had remained closed since 1829; Larrazabal categorically opposed it, saying that no mob would enter the sacred precinct, much less armed; Carrera then put a knife to his neck and again asked him to please open the doors. Larrazábal gave orders to open the compound, and the mob invaded it but respected it and thus the militia's spirits calmed down.

On March 2, 1838, the absence of Dr. Gálvez's power was unanimously accepted in the Assembly, and a period of uncertainty would begin in the State of Guatemala, of which the great beneficiary would be Rafael Carrera, although he would first suffer some defeats. When the government of Gálvez fell, the Creole representatives of Los Altos took the opportunity to separate from the State of Guatemala. Governor Valenzuela could not do anything about it, and the Congress of the Central American Federation recognized the Sixth Estate on June 5, 1838 with a provisional government junta made up of Marcelo Molina Mata, José M. Gálvez and José Antonio Aguilar, while the Mexican general Agustín Guzmán - a former officer in the army of Vicente Filísola who had settled in Quetzaltenango - was left in command of the state army. In December 1838, Molina Matta was elected Governor of the State of Los Altos, and immediately began to work on the development of the port on the Pacific and to improve relations with the federal government in San Salvador. The indigenous people of the West, for their part, went to Guatemala City to complain about the ladino altense leaders, especially the Political Chief of Totonicapán, Macario Rodas, and the Military Commander, Agustín Guzmán, who had imposed extraordinary tax burdens on them, had not repealed the personal tax imposed by the Gálvez government, and had seized a large part of their ejido lands. In retaliation, the authorities of Alta imprisoned the complainants. For his part, after the triumph of Rafael Carrera, Barrundia emigrated to the State of Los Altos, where he founded with Simón Vasconcelos, Felipe Molina and Manuel Irungaray, the newspaper El popular, in which he attacked the conservatives, the new government and Carrera himself

By the time Morazán arrived in Guatemala City, Gálvez had already left the head of state. The group in power granted him full powers to confront Rafael Carrera, they also offered him the lifetime presidency, but Morazán rejected this offer, because it was against his liberal principles. Morazán then called on Carrera to lay down his arms, but the rebel leader opposed it. Carrera was defeated and persecuted by Morazán on several occasions, thus managing to pacify the state. But the general was never able to apprehend the indigenous leader, as he simply withdrew into the mountains and returned to occupy key positions as soon as Morazán's troops left the state of Guatemala.

Gálvez had not given up, and remained in his house in Guatemala City, from where he watched how all his efforts were collapsing. Legally he was the Head of State, and Valenzuela was only interim president in his absence. When the situation was out of control for the Liberals, Gálvez finally resigned. His activity against Carrera and the severe threats received from him caused Barrundia to go into exile in El Salvador, where he founded the short-lived newspaper El Progreso.

Coup of 1839

Map of Guatemala in 1839. Observe the undelimited borders with Mexico in Yucatan and Chiapas, and Belize was still an English settlement.

On April 14, 1838, the conservatives lost the power of the State of Guatemala, and Carrera was confined to the Mita mountains. It all began with the incursion of the liberal forces of Morazán and Barrundia y Cepeda, who entered to Guatemala and upon arriving in San Sur, they executed Pascual Álvarez, Carrera's father-in-law, and placed his head on a pike to punish all his followers. Upon learning of this, Carrera and his wife Petrona, who had gone out to confront As soon as Morazán found out about the invasion and were in Mataquescuintla, they swore that they would not forgive Morazán even in the grave. After sending several emissaries, whom Carrera did not want to receive -especially Barrundia, whom he informed that he would not he received it so as not to kill him- Morazán began a strong scorched earth offensive, destroying the towns in his path and stripping them of their few assets, and forcing Carrera's forces to hide in the mountains.

Believing that Carrera was completely defeated, Morazán and Barrundia headed for Guatemala City where they were greeted as saviors by Governor Valenzuela and members of the Aycinena Clan, who even proposed sponsoring one of the liberal battalions, while Valenzuela and Barrundia put Guatemala's resources under Morazán's orders to solve any financial problems he had. Creoles from both parties celebrated until dawn the fact that they finally had a caudillo like Morazán, capable of defeating the rebellion of the countryside Morazán used the resources to support Los Altos and later replaced Valenzuela with Mariano Rivera Paz, close to the Aycinena Clan, although he did not return the assets confiscated in 1829; in revenge, Juan José de Aycinena y Piñol voted to dissolve the Central American Federation in San Salvador a little later, forcing Morazán to return to El Salvador to fight for his moribund federal mandate. Along the way, Morazán increased repression in eastern Guatemala, as a punishment for having helped Carrera, whom he considered defeated.

Knowing that Morazán had gone to El Salvador, Carrera attempted to take Salamá with his small remaining force, but was defeated, losing his brother Laureano in combat. With just a few men he managed to flee, badly wounded, towards Sanarate. After half recovering, he attacked a detachment in Jutiapa and managed to obtain a small booty that he distributed to the volunteers who accompanied him and prepared to attack Petapa, near Guatemala City, where he triumphed, but with considerable casualties.

In September of that year, Carrera attempted an assault on the capital of Guatemala, but the liberal general Carlos Salazar Castro defeated him in the fields of Villa Nueva, and Carrera had to withdraw again to the east of the state. After several attempts Unsuccessful in taking the city and Quetzaltenango, Carrera was surrounded and wounded and had to capitulate to Mexican General Agustín Guzmán, Commander-in-Chief of the Los Altos State Army. Morazán had the opportunity to shoot Carrera, but he could not because he needed the support of the Guatemalan peasantry to be able to counteract the attacks of Francisco Ferrera in El Salvador; instead, he was forced to appoint him as military chief of Mita, but without weapons.When he was in Mita, Ferrera invited him to meet, to which he agreed; Knowing that Morazán was going to attack El Salvador, they decided that Carrera was going to attack Guatemala City and for this Ferrera gave him a thousand weapons and ammunition.

Meanwhile, despite the recommendations of his relatives to definitively crush Carrera's forces, Salazar tried to negotiate with him through diplomatic channels. Even, to show Carrera that he was neither feared nor distrusted, he withdrew the fortifications that had been in the Guatemalan capital since the battle of Villa Nueva. Taking advantage of Salazar's good faith and Ferrera's weapons, on April 13, 1839 Carrera took the Plaza de Guatemala by surprise; Salazar Castro, Barrundia and Mariano Gálvez fled before Carrera's arrival; Salazar, in a nightshirt, jumped off the roofs of neighboring houses and sought refuge. Later, as he could, he crossed the border disguised as a peasant and fled Guatemala.Without Salazar, Carrera reinstated Mariano Rivera y Paz, as governor of Guatemala; Rivera Paz in turn named him General in Chief of the Army although in reality it was Carrera who had absolute command in Guatemala and became a strong ally of Ferrera.

Forced exile of Carrera and his triumphant return to Guatemala

Portrait of Captain General Rafael Carrera in celebration of the founding of the Republic of Guatemala in 1847.

After the uprising of rebels in eastern Guatemala and due to pressure from liberals, Carrera resigned from the presidency of Guatemala, leaving with his family for Mexico in 1848; in his absence, the Legislative Assembly, now in the hands of the liberals, issued a provision declaring him outlawed that the death penalty should be applied to him if he dared to return to the country.

On August 26, 1848, during the brief absence of Carrera from the central power, and taking advantage of the fact that Mariano Paredes had been called to Guatemala to take charge of the situation after the resignation of Martínez and his successor José Bernardo Escobar, The Quetzaltec capitulars, with the support of the President of El Salvador, Doroteo Vasconcelos, and the anticarrerista faction of Vicente and Serapio Cruz, once again proclaimed their segregation from Guatemala with the Mexican General Agustín Guzmán as head of the army and president. interim; on September 5, they elected an interim government led by Fernando Antonio Martínez.

Guatemala entered a deep crisis: there were political crimes committed by important personalities and bandits loose throughout the country; the government issued laws, but no one complied with them. Former President Mariano Rivera Paz and General Vicente Cruz, brother of Serapio Cruz, were assassinated when they tried to take office as mayor of Jalapa in 1849. At the end of April, Carrera returned to Guatemala via the Huehuetenango border, despite the Petrona's insistence that he not do it, since she knew that he would lose him one way or another: either he would be killed in combat or, if he survived, he would be left in the arms of his lovers. Leaving his family in Mexico, Carrera entered Guatemala and conferred with the leaders of the K'iche', Q'Anjobal, and Mam ethnic groups, convincing them that they should all unite to defend themselves.. Carrera inadvertently formed an indigenous consciousness in the west of the country, which formed the basis of his military power in the area.

The Paredes government appointed Major José Víctor Zavala as corregidor of Suchitepéquez to arrest Carrera; but Zavala, instead of stopping Carrera, placed himself under his orders.Agustín Guzmán, leader of the newly formed independent State of Los Altos, went to Antigua Guatemala to confer with Paredes' envoys and decide what strategy to use against Carrera; Carrera, for his part, took advantage of Guzmán's absence to seize Quetzaltenango, since he already had Zavala's military support in Suchitepéquez.

Upon hearing the news, and upon learning of the massive support of the different indigenous ethnic groups for General Carrera, President Mariano Paredes, after much deliberation with liberals and conservatives, finally followed the advice of conservative Luis Batres Juarros, who made him see that fighting Carrera was opening a front in the western part of the country, and he decided to revoke the death sentence against Carrera and name him General Commander of Arms, with authorization to attend to the pacification of the affected peoples in the eastern part of the country, and to direct military operations in the way that he deems appropriate. Paredes and Juarros were also aware of the Caste War that was pitting the natives against the Creoles in Yucatán. Given this decree, the main liberal leaders fled to El Salvador, where President Doroteo Vasconcelos gave them asylum; Among those who fled were José Francisco Barrundia and Dr. Lorenzo Montúfar. In Guatemala, Dr. Pedro Molina, who was already too old to undertake such a trip, remained. Finally, Carrera entered Guatemala City triumphantly on August 8, 1849.

Battle of the Plowing

From El Salvador, Barrundia y Cepeda founded a newspaper to attack Carrera. Vasconcelos fed the rebel faction "La Montaña" in eastern Guatemala for a whole year, distributing money and weapons among the rebels. At the end of the year 1850, Vasconcelos felt tired of this slow war against Guatemala and decided to act openly. Thus, the Salvadoran president began a crusade against the conservative regime of Guatemala, inviting Honduras and Nicaragua to participate in the alliance; but of both governments, only the Honduran one led by Juan Lindo agreed to participate in the invasion.

Meanwhile, in Guatemala, where the invasion plans against him were well known, the president of Mariano Paredes took the necessary precautions to face the situation, while the archbishop don Francisco de Paula García Peláez ordered in his archdiocese rogations of peace.

On January 4, 1851, the presidents of Honduras and El Salvador met in Ocotepeque, with which the alliance against Guatemala was sealed. The Salvadoran army was made up of 4,000 men fully ammunitioned and supported by artillery; Hondurans for their part prepared 2,000 men for the campaign. The bulk of the allied forces was located in Metapán, as this is a location close to Honduras and the Guatemalan border.

The "battle of the Plowing" was fought on February 2, 1851 near the city of Chiquimula in Guatemala, between the forces of Guatemala and an allied army from Honduras and El Salvador. The battle was part of the war between the conservative government of Guatemala against the liberal coalition of El Salvador and Honduras, and was the most obvious threat to Guatemala of losing its sovereignty as a Republic. The combat was resolved with a resounding victory for Carrera's forces, which definitively sealed their hegemony in the region.

After the battle, on October 22, 1851, President Paredes resigned; the National Assembly appointed Carrera to replace him, and he took possession of the Presidency on November 6, 1851 after having requested the representatives to modify the Constitution of the Republic at their convenience.

Death

Barrundia y Cepeda died in New York, United States, on August 4, 1854, when he was acting as Minister Plenipotentiary of Honduras in the United States. His remains were repatriated to Guatemala in 1913 by order of the then liberal president of Guatemala, Manuel Estrada Cabrera, and buried in a monument at the exit door of the General Cemetery in Guatemala City.

Literary works

He translated Milton's Paradise Lost into Spanish in 1811, as well as several works of Italian classics. A highly skilled journalist, he wrote profusely for The Constitutional Editor, and later for El genio de la libertad. He founded the newspaper La tribuna, whose first issue was published on August 23, 1823. Later, when he assumed the presidency of the State of Guatemala, he edited La antorcha centroamericana, which appeared on February 7, 1829.

In April 1833, Barrundia published a new newspaper, El centroamericano, a political and variety weekly; the 1st. On September 1837, Barrundia published the weekly The Opposition, from which he attacked the government of Dr. Gálvez.