- Emiliano Chamorro Vargas
Emiliano Chamorro Vargas (
May 11 ,1871 –February 26 ,1966 ) was president ofNicaragua fromJanuary 1 ,1917 toDecember 31 ,1920 and again in 1926 fromJanuary 17 toOctober 30 .Chamorro's first foray into politics came in 1893, when he participated in the failed revolution to topple President
José Santos Zelaya . When Zelaya was finally removed in a 1909 coup led byJuan José Estrada , Chamorro became Chairman of the Constituent Assembly and leader of the country's Conservative Party.In reward for his assistance in defeating the revolt against President
Adolfo Díaz , Chamorro was appointed Nicaragua's Minister to theUnited States . In 1914, he negotiated theBryan-Chamorro Treaty with the United States, by which Nicaragua agreed to allow the construction of a canal across the country, linking theCaribbean with thePacific Ocean (a canal which has not been constructed).He returned to Nicaragua in 1916, and was elected president. During his term in office he made a concentrated effort to pay off the country's creditors. Running again for office in 1923, he was defeated by
Carlos José Solórzano . In 1926, he led a successful coup to overthrow Solórzano, but his new government failed to win American support, and he eventually resigned in favor ofAdolfo Díaz .In the following years, Chamorro served as Nicaragua's minister to several European states. Originally opposed to the dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza García, he eventually reached a compromise in 1950 ("The Pact of the Generals" [http://sshl.ucsd.edu/collections/las/nicaragua/1937.html] ), whereby the Conservative Party was granted a number of seats in the Congress. This, however, cost him the support of many radical members of the Conservative Party.
External links
* [http://www.touring-costarica.com/emiliano.html Emiliano Chamorro Vargas]
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