Félix María Zuloaga

Infobox_President | name=Félix María Zuloaga
nationality=Mexican


term_start=January 21 1858
term_end=December 24 1858
January 24 1859 – February 1 1859
December 28 1860 – March 23 1862
order=
predecessor=Ignacio Comonfort (1858)
Manuel Robles (1859)
Miguel Miramón (1860)
successor=Manuel Robles (1858)
Miguel Miramón (1859)
birth_date=birth date|1803|3|31|mf=y
birth_place=Álamos, Sonora
dead=dead
death_date=death date and age|1898|2|11|1803|3|31|mf=y
death_place=Mexico City
spouse=
party=Conservative
vicepresident=

Félix María Zuloaga Trillo (March 31 1803, Álamos, Sonora – February 11 1898, Mexico City) was a Mexican general and a Conservative leader in the War of Reform. In the late 1850s and early 1860s, Zuloaga served three times as Conservative president of Mexico (in opposition to the constitutional president, Benito Juárez of the Liberal Party). His third term was nominal, and he exercised no real power.

Background

Zuloaga was born in Sonora. He attended primary school in Chihuahua before entering a seminary in Mexico City. Thereafter he returned to Chihuahua, enlisting in the civil militia in 1834. He participated in campaigns against the Apaches and Comanches.

He returned to the capital in 1838 and entered the army as a second lieutenant of engineers. He took part in the Pastry War against the French (1838) and the War of Texas Independence. Initially a liberal in politics, in 1840 he defended the government of President Anastasio Bustamante (who had both liberal and conservative connections). The following year he was allied with Antonio López de Santa Anna. He fought the separatists in Yucatán and directed the fortifications at Monterrey. During the war with the United States he was mayor of Chihuahua.

He rejoined the army, and in 1838 was named president of the Council of War of the garrison of Mexico City.

In 1854 he fought against the liberals supporting the Plan de Ayutla, and was taken prisoner. He was now a brigadier. In 1855 he was a representative of Chihuahua in the Junta of Representatives of the States that met in Cuernavaca.

Conservative president of Mexico

Zuloaga fought against the conservatives in two campaigns in Puebla, but on December 17 1857 he came out against the newly proclaimed constitution and joined in a "coup d'état" ("golpe") staged by a junta of generals and leading Catholic clergy. Two days later, the wavering moderate President Ignacio Comonfort accepted the reactionary Plan de Tacubaya, thus abandoning the Constitution of 1857. Various liberals protested, including Benito Juárez, the president of the Supreme Court and constitutional vice president, next in line to succeed to the presidency, but they were arrested and imprisoned.

The leaders of the junta became uneasy after President Comonfort announced he was assuming extraordinary powers for himself. On January 11 1858, General Zuloaga demanded the president's resignation (although Comonfort and Zuloaga had been friends). Comonfort resisted for ten days, and during that time he freed Juárez and the other liberals who had been jailed. Upon Comonfort's ouster, Juárez assumed the presidency in accordance with the constitution, but Zuloaga was in military command of the capital, and Juárez left to establish his government in Guanajuato. This was the beginning of the War of the Reform. Comonfort left the country, repudiated by all parties.

Zuloaga was selected by the backers of the anti-constitutional junta, conservative generals and Catholic clergy, to serve as interim president of Mexico on (January 21 1858). He held this position until December 24 1858, when he was deposed by conservative General Manuel Robles (as a substitute for General Miguel Miramón, who was on campaign), under the Plan de Navidad. Robles Pezuela held the presidency until January 21 1859, and on January 24 Zuloaga returned to office. (José Mariano Salas also claimed the conservative presidency briefly.) Zuloaga's second term lasted until February 1 1859, and he was replaced by Miramón.

On May 9 1860, Zuloaga issued a proclamation reclaiming the presidency, but the following day Miramón had him arrested. Miramón was reported to have told Zuloaga upon his arrest, "I will teach you how to win the presidency." Zuloaga escaped from León, Guanajuato, on August 3, 1860 and marched to Mexico City. However the Governing Council (conservative junta) there refused to recognize him as president.

He was president again from December 28 1860 to December 28 1862, but in name only, because he spent this time on campaign.

Later life

Upon the triumph of the liberals in the War of the Reform, Zuloaga was declared an outlaw because of his responsibility for the execution of Melchor Ocampo. Zuloaga tried to ally himself with the French during the Second Empire, but without success. In 1865 he was exiled to Cuba. He returned to Mexico years later, after the death of Juárez. He did not reenter politics, but became a tobacco merchant.

Death

He died in Mexico City in 1898 at the age of 95.

References

*es icon "Zuloaga, Félix María," "Enciclopedia de México", v. 14. Mexico City, 1996, ISBN 1-56409-016-7.
*es icon García Puron, Manuel, "México y sus gobernantes", v. 2. Mexico City: Joaquín Porrúa, 1984.
*es icon Orozco Linares, Fernando, "Gobernantes de México". Mexico City: Panorama Editorial, 1985, ISBN 968-38-0260-5.

External links

*es icon [http://www.elbalero.gob.mx/historia/html/gober/f_zuloaga.html Short biography]