Justo Figuerola
Justo Modesto Figuerola de Estrada (Lambayeque, San Pedro, June 18, 1771 - Lima, May 23, 1854) was a Peruvian politician and magistrate, who held the provisional presidency of Peru in twice, for a few days in 1843 and two months in 1844. He was also president of the first Constituent Congress of Peru in 1823, and of the Supreme Court of Peru, between 1836 and 1837, as well as Minister of Government and Foreign Relations (1829)., and deputy. It is noteworthy that he alternately headed the three powers of the State: the Executive, the Legislative and the Judiciary, although the first provisionally.
Birth and studies
He was the son of Corsican colonel Domingo María Figuerola Castiglio and Ana María Juana Francisca de Estrada Alvarado. Born into a family established in Lambayeque, he obtained the ranks of lieutenant (1783) and captain of grenadiers (1787) of the militia regiment of his city at a very young age. In 1787 he moved to Lima to study at the Real Convictorio de San Carlos, where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in Sacred Canons (1795). He did his forensic practice in the studio of Cayetano Belón and graduated as a lawyer in 1797.
He gained prestige when he won a cause defending the priest of the Matriz de Cajamarca, José Antonio Polo y Caso, whom the Bishop of Trujillo José Carrión y Marfil wanted to permanently disqualify for having maintained that on common Fridays of the year he could eat meat and fish (1813).
Professor at San Marcos
He returned to Lambayeque, having evidence that in 1801 he was captain of the local militias. But shortly after he joined the academic work at the University of San Marcos, where he delivered a laudatory oration on the occasion of the proclamation of King Ferdinand VII, on October 14, 1808. He served as professor of Moral Philosophy, Code and Vespers of Laws, as well as attorney. He later served as notary of the archbishopric of Lima (1814-1824).
He was one of the first to sign the Act of Independence of Peru, on July 15, 1821. On January 17, 1822, he was appointed to pronounce the laudatory prayer in homage to José de San Martín, during the reception given from the San Marcos University of Libertador.
President of the first Constituent Congress
He was elected deputy for Trujillo in the first Constituent Congress of 1822. He was part of the commission in charge of drafting the Political Constitution project, together with Manuel Pérez de Tudela, Toribio Rodríguez de Mendoza, Hipólito Unanue, José Faustino Sánchez Carrión, Francisco Javier Mariátegui, Carlos Pedemonte, José Gregorio Paredes, among other prominent jurists (1823).
On June 20, 1823, he was elevated to the presidency of Congress. Later, he was in the group of deputies that followed President José de la Riva Agüero on his trip to the northern city of Trujillo, since Congress had decided to install the headquarters of the State powers there. It was then that, on July 19, 1823, Riva Agüero decreed the dissolution of Congress and established a senate, known as the "Senate of Trujillo", made up of ten members elected from among the deputies themselves, one for each department.: Nicolás de Araníbar (Arequipa), Hipólito Unanue (Tarma), José Pezet (Cusco), Francisco Salazar (Puno), José Rafael Miranda (Ayacucho), Justo Figuerola (Huancavelica), Manuel de Arias (Lima), Toribio Dávalos (La Costa), José de Larrea (Huaylas) and Martín de Ostolaza (Trujillo). This Senate held 27 sessions from September 18 to November 18, 1823. The most recalcitrant deputies to this measure were shipped south.
However, Figuerola refused to support Riva Agüero in his rebellion, and returned to Lima, rejoining the reinstated Congress, whose presidency he resumed, from August 12 to September 20, 1823. This same Congress stripped its authority to Riva Agüero and appointed Torre Tagle as the new president, who finally handed over power to the liberator Bolívar.
Magistrate, parliamentarian and Minister of State
Consolidated independence, he was part of the commission in charge of the projects of the Civil and Criminal codes. On June 1, 1825, he was appointed member of the Superior Court of Justice. He delivered a salutation in honor of Bolívar, during a banquet offered to the Liberator in the Government Palace, to celebrate the first anniversary of the battle of Junín.
He was later a member of the General Constituent Congress of 1827 for the province of Lambayeque. Said constituent congress was the one that elaborated the second political constitution of the country.
Representing the province of Lambayeque, he was one of the sixty-five deputies elected in 1825 by the electoral colleges and ratified by the Supreme Court, who were summoned to approve the Constitution for Life sponsored by Bolívar. However, said congress remained in preparatory meetings because a majority group of said deputies, among whom was Figuerola, decided not to assume their functions and asked Bolívar to convene the Congress the following year.
He was later deputy for the then Liberté province of Lambayeque in 1829, 1831 and 1832 during the first government of Mariscal Agustín Gamarra.
He was also Minister of Government and Foreign Relations, during the interim government of Vice President Manuel Salazar y Baquíjano, who replaced President José de la Mar who was absent due to the war against Gran Colombia (1828-1829). He remained in that position until the coup d'état by General Antonio Gutiérrez de la Fuente, which later gave way to the first government of Agustín Gamarra.
By decree of August 20, 1831, he was appointed member of the Supreme Court of Justice, representing the department of La Libertad. He presided over this high court between 1836 and 1837. During the judicial reform of 1839, he was ratified in his vocals.
Interim President of the Republic
During the second presidency of Agustín Gamarra, he was appointed first vice-president of the Council of State in 1839 (a position equivalent to that of second vice-president; the president of said Council was Manuel Menéndez, who, therefore, was the first vice-president). After the death of President Gamarra in the battle of Ingavi, anarchy broke out, and Figuerola, who was already overwhelmed by the infirmities of old age, had to take charge of the Executive Power on two occasions.
First government
The first of these mandates, which he received from General Francisco de Vidal, lasted only a few days, from March 15 to 19, 1843. He organized his ministerial cabinet in this way: Matías León (Government and Foreign Relations), Ramón Castilla (War) and Manuel de Mendiburu (Finance).
It is said that a crowd surrounded his house (located on Calle Plateros de San Agustín) and demanded that he resign in favor of Colonel Manuel Ignacio de Vivanco. Figuerola, who was already in bed, as it was just six in the afternoon, ordered his daughter-in-law to throw the presidential sash off the balcony, thus wanting to demonstrate his detachment and at the same time to leave him alone; the overjoyed crowd seized the insignia and brought it to Vivanco. This is how Ricardo Palma relates it in one of his Peruvian traditions ("Throw the band over the balcony"). A more reliable version, that of the memorialist Santiago Távara Andrade, includes the same fact, but varying in that he was a messenger, in high hours of the night, who, giving furious knocks on the door, woke up Figuerola to tell him that there was a revolution in the Palace; The old man, angry, did not want to get out of bed and ordered his daughter to throw the band out of the window; there is no mention of any crowd outside his house.
The writer Carlos Camino Calderón also alluded to this episode in his novel "El daño".
Second government
His second term lasted only two months, from August 10 to October 7, 1844. On August 9, 1844, he decreed the suppression of the General Ministry and the reestablishment of the Government, Finance and War ministries. Ministers were appointed: the president of the Supreme Court Manuel Pérez de Tudela (Government and Foreign Relations) and the until then General Minister Domingo Elías (Treasury and interim War).
Finally, he transferred the government to Manuel Menéndez, since he was Gamarra's legitimate successor, thus restoring constitutionality. He withdrew from the political scene for good and retired in 1851. He passed away in 1854.
Written Works
Figuerola alternated his job as magistrate with writing. Among his main works we mention the following:
- Forensic practice (1818), which for many years was used by law practitioners.
- News of the rogative devotions with which the city of Lima imploded divine aid in the current circumstances of the monarchy (1808).
- Prayer that in the Besamanos of 14 October had in celebrity of the birthday of our sovereign Catholic Fernando VII and of his proclamation made on the previous day pronounced... (1808).
- Defense of Don José Antonio Polo and Caso (1813).
- Address on the Days of Our Suspected Monarch Fernando VII (1813).
- Plan that the concurrents to the theoretical-practice jurisprudence conferences established under the statutes of the illustrious bar of Lima should arrange their studies for easier instruction (1818).
- Relationship of the exequias by the chiefs and subordinates who perished in the Punta de San Luis (1819).
- Letters to a friend about the paper written in Lima and printed in Buenos Aires, intitulated historical and political manifestation of the revolution of the Americas (1820).
- Elogio del excelentísimo señor Don José de San Martín y Matorras, protector del Perú (1822).
- The praise of Mr. Joseph Gorbea and Badillo.
- Address on article 3 of the draft constitution (1827)