Venancio Flores

Venancio Flores Barrios (Trinidad, May 18, 1808 - Montevideo, February 19, 1868) was a Uruguayan military and politician, President of the Republic in the periods of 1853-1855 and 1865 -1868.

Biography

He fought in the Liberation Crusade, which began with the landing of the Thirty-Three. In 1839 he was appointed by the colorados political head of the department of San José. He fought in the Great War against Manuel Oribe and Juan Manuel de Rosas (1843-1851) and participated in the Battle of Cagancha. At the beginning of the Sitio Grande he was appointed military commander, later becoming an influential figure in the Colorado Party.

Triumvirate and constitutional presidency

With the end of the Great War, the president would be General Eugenio Garzón, but his death led to the election of Juan Francisco Giró, Flores being named political chief of Montevideo in 1852. In 1853, when Giró resigned, Flores formed a "triumvirate" with Juan Antonio Lavalleja and Fructuoso Rivera. With their death, in 1853 and 1854 respectively, Flores remained in the exercise of the Executive Power.

After new elections were verified, on March 12, 1854, the General Assembly elected him constitutional president until March 1, 1856, to complete the term of President Giró. However, in August 1855 the Rebellion of the Conservatives took place, a military revolution against the president, who left the capital. The rebels established a provisional government headed by Don Luis Lamas. An agreement was reached between the parties in order to avoid a military confrontation and the conflict ended peacefully. Flores met the General Assembly, dissolved by the revolutionaries, and on September 10, 1855, he presented his indeclinable resignation from the presidential position, succeeding him in the exercise of the Executive Power by the president of the Senate, Don Manuel B. Bustamante. The revolutionaries accepted the new interim ruler and laid down their arms.

Government Cabinet

Action in Santa Fe

In 1856, together with Arredondo, he settled in the province of Entre Ríos (Argentina), actively intervening in the Argentine and Uruguayan Confederation, supporting the centralist State of Buenos Aires (governed by the Unitarians). On November 22, 1861, under the command of the troops of the Unitarian Bartolomé Mitre, he was responsible for the Massacre of Cañada de Gómez (in the province of Santa Fe), in which he surprised the federal army in the middle of the night and he had more than 300 men of the federal army beheaded. Those who were not killed that night were incorporated into Mitre's army, but deserted on the first occasion. Therefore, from now on, Flores would have the throats of every federal prisoner who fell into his hands.

Liberating Crusade

Gral. Venancio Flores.

On April 19, 1863, he led a revolution that started a civil war, which he named the "Liberating Crusade." He defeated the Uruguayan nationalists in the Battles of Coquimbo (June 1863) and Cañas (July 1863). He accepted military aid from the Empire of Brazil in the conflicts in the campaign generated by the nationalist purge promoted by Berro - and from Buenos Aires for the campaign towards Montevideo. Flores occupied Florida on August 4, 1864, and had the defenders of the town (today a city, capital of the homonymous department) shot. In January 1865 he took Paysandú, besieged by the Brazilians (see the article Defensa de Paysandú), and ordered all the officers shot. On February 20, 1865, he entered Montevideo.

Provisional Government

D. V. Florès.

He assumed the leadership of the Uruguayan State with the title of "Provisional Governor" for three years. In March 1865 he became involved ―together with the Empire of Brazil and the Unitarios of Buenos Aires, in the War of the Triple Alliance against Paraguay.

Exercising the provisional position, the Código de Comercio was approved in 1866. In 1867 the first telegraphic connection with Buenos Aires was made and the central Post Office building was inaugurated. The following year the Civil Code was approved and the first line of horse-drawn trams was inaugurated. Another achievement of his government was the granting of the first concessions for the construction of railway lines.

Government Cabinet

Death

Murder of General Venancio Flores (19 February 1868), oil of the Uruguayan painter Juan Manuel Blanes.

The government of Venancio Flores ended on February 15, 1868. Four days later, and under long-discussed circumstances, he was assassinated in Montevideo by a group of unknown persons.

Law No. 1854 of December 30, 1885, promulgated during the government of Máximo Santos, created the department of Flores in his memory.

In popular culture

The Uruguayan film filmed in 1982 entitled They killed Venancio Flores, directed by Juan Carlos Rodríguez Castro, shows the murder of Venancio Flores and the events that followed his death.

In 2021 the writer Fernando Klein published a book entitled They Killed Flores: Intrigue and Power at the Dawn of Modern Uruguay. A novel narrated with historical accuracy and thriller rhythm about the fateful day of February 19, 1868, the day on which the two former presidents of the Republic, Venancio Flores and Bernardo Prudencio Berro, were assassinated, one of the most enigmatic and violent episodes that Uruguay lived.

Family

Married to María García Zamora, he was the father of seven children: Fortunato, Eduardo, Segundo, Ricardo, Agapita, Máximo and Venancio. He had a brother, Manuel.

Several politicians come from this family: Manuel Flores Mora, Manuel Flores Silva, Eduardo Flores Contartese, Alfonso Costa Flores, Venancio Flores.